Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label Cities and Urbanization

द्रुतगामिनी Railroad

Background: I went to Manchester yesterday - spend about 6 hours in train. It was the best setting to brainstorm alone ... and during the travel popped an idea, which i keyed into my laptop there and then. I have a desire to expand this idea and would love readers to provide inputs - especially if you think you have functional knowlegde and experience in the field of Railways. The railway network in India is organised on the 'tree topology ' meant primarily for long distance passenger travel and goods haulage. This is quite opposite to that in Europe where rail networks are organized in 'Hub-and-Spoke' topology and trains are means of fast, comfortable and no-frills (no check-in, etc) transport for domestic & small distances while air-travel is more common for international & long distances. One of the reasons for this might be the political landscape of Western Europe with each country having a hub - usually capital city - connecting other smaller towns &

Back to Rains and Bad Roads.. i.e. Mumbai!

For the uninitiated, I am just back from Hyderabad after spending a good 3 weeks in that lake'n'hill city. The flight was delayed by 3 hrs at departure itself and as much as I was eager to catch upon life here ... I was not disappointed by the 'challenges' that emerged - a Highway that is worse than a mud road in a village, exorbitantly charging taxi drivers, jam-packed roads and to compound it all, rain from the above. Mumbai this year has gone to the dogs!! As I came near the Powai lake and saw the new widened road - I felt being guilty of eating into nature. The road widening along the Powai lake has eaten up parts of the lake and thick vegetation that lined it up on all sides. The way we are playing with nature, it is no wonder we are facing its furies like the Floods and Hurricanes It is an irony that I chose to live in Powai to enjoy the vegetation and natural beauty it abounds, but it is because of dwellers like me that the pressure on the area's infrastructu