Save Paral

The Faulty Present-Day Connector

I have been able to conjure up a Grand Master Plan for the development of Paral (.... hereinafter referred to as the "GMP-P" for short).

This problem of a faulty Connector design was gnawing my mind for a long time, and one fine night, very recently, while sleeping, I could clearly see a vision of the GMP-P plan. How I wish I had dreamt of it earlier! Albeit late, it is never too late, if it is going to fix a horrible design anomaly and be futuristic and future ready. I am sincerely sorry for this delayed Website. The thoughts of the GMP-P did not occur to me anytime earlier. I am really really sorry for that. The imminent closure of the Prabhadevi Bridge was heavily weighing on my mind and closer towards the announcement of the closure I got very very upset. It all sent my brain in overdrive. What came out of it all is fantabulous, and at the cost of sounding immodest, I am proud to present the State with the GMP-P.

The double-decker bridge i.e. the Worli-Sewri Connector, is horribly designed because the lower deck is designed to be a 2x2 lane bridge i.e. a 4 lane bridge. And what is great about that I ask? The present day existing Prabhadevi Bridge is already a compact 2x2 lane wide bridge. Except for a slightly wider (which will facilitate bikers traversing it) 2x2 lane bridge the lower deck is not adding any more capacity to the existing infrastructure. So two glaring design faults, that of, FIRSTLY NOT PROVIDING FOR AN EXIT FOR THE AMBULANCES on the eastern side, and SECONDLY NOT ADDING ANY MORE TRAFFIC ABSORBING CAPACITY to the lower deck, are the major design flaws that I am referring to vide these presents.

Do folks at the MMRDA not understand the rightful sequence of events?

The rightful sequence of events ought to have been as follows:

Build the New Tilak Bridge first thing as suggested by me earlier and published at www.savedadar.org
Use the New Tilak Bridge during the time the Old Tilak Bridge is rebuilt.
And only after both these are thrown open to the public should they be allowed to build the Connector, and that too, only exactly as per the GMP-P.
And needless to say, they can and ideally should, connect the Atal Setu to the Mumbai-Pune Expressway and the Mumbai-Goa Highway, in the interim.

But Why Fight a Goliath?

But before the GMP-P, one needs to focus on the primary cause of this Website. That being, that the Worli-Sewri Connector has not accounted for a ramp down on the eastern side where nearly a dozen hospitals exist. We also need to understand, that insofar as the road traffic is concerned, the Lowest Common Denominator - is always going to be THE AMBULANCE. One may think it is actually the bicycle since that is the smallest and is also manually peddled. But the truth is that the ambulance is the Lowest Common Denominator because the ambulance's purpose is to save lives, and in doing that, she does not in any way discriminate as to who the occupant is. The ambulance's sole motive is to reach the hospital at the earliest and save the precious life of the patient. So a ramp down from the Connector, down into Paral, meant exclusively for the ambulances, is a necessity and that is missing in the present day design of the Connector.

Just look at the number of hospitals that exist on the eastern side of Paral.

Parel Hospital
Tata Memorial Hospital, Homi Bhabha Block
Tata Memorial Center
Nowrosjee Wadia Maternity Hospital
Wadia Children's Hospital
Gandhi Hospital
King Edward Memorial Hospital (KEM Hospital)
KEM Orthopedic Center
New TB Hospital
K B H Bachoo Ali Ophthalmic Hospital
Global Hospital
The Bai Sakarbai Dinshaw Petit Hospital for Animals (Bailghoda)

Am I against this Connector bridge or what? One will wonder. NO! Far from it in fact. I am all for it, provided however, it accounts for an exit ramp down on Paral east for the ambulances. In fact, bridges are an important piece of infrastructure in a city's landscape. It is the bridges that ease traffic snarls, connect two points, eliminate bottlenecks etc. And the real reason why a bridge is so important and will always succeed, is because the purpose of the bridge's user ensures that a bridge will never fail. The sole purpose of every bridge user is to get on to the other side of the bridge (barring of course some idiots who get on it for striking poses for their selfies or for committing suicide). पुलावर चढणाऱ्या प्रत्येक व्यक्तीचा हेतू एकच असतो. पलीकडे जाणे! And this is the very reason why bridges succeed and are absolutely necessary. Not so with all other road users. All the rest of the road users get on the road with differing motives. And it is these differing motives of the road users, usually conflicting and not complimenting, that cause the traffic jams. Not so with the user of a bridge. All bridge users have the same intent. That of getting down on the other side.