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Page 2 of 2 Clearly, our more than 50-year-old infrastructure
is crumbling, and fast, much like Sadaf Mansion. Thanks to the lethal
combination: Of sterling quality of materials used, lack of right
technology, absence of will and the paucity of funds – maybe because there
are none left after the excesses of the administrators. Believable?
Add to it the pathetic 'repair' plan. The ‘spit asphalt here and there’
spree – a typical aftermath scenario following rains (this one was touted
as a ‘natural calamity’) – was a poorly administered, patch-up job, given
that it came undone in two days. What makes my blood curdle are the “MMRDA
Work in Progress, Sorry for the Inconvenience” boards irritatingly pegged
at vantage traffic nooses as each look at them makes me think of the
obscene amounts allocated for urban development, and what the MMRDA is
doing with them, the misdirected funneling of our (taxpayers) funds, the
cosy nesteggs they make for many and the further timeless fencing of the
Highway to contain cascading rocks, courtesy the hewing of the hillsides
to widen the road. I say if there IS no intact, unsavaged road, what is
the idea behind financing fancy schemes to widen the raped path and
compounding the existing horrors?
This ain’t Shanghai, and I ain’t no Michael Schumacher wanting to zip
around like an unguided missile. But I don’t want to be forced to either
crawl at a retarded 5 km/hr or manoeuvere my four wheeler through yawning
holes that threaten to make water bags burst, snap the necks of tiny tots,
shoot 24x7 painful twinges up and down spines and make whoever’s driving
the vehicle raise a finger at the mention of the word ‘smile’. Who’s neck
is on the line, anyway? Mine and yours.
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