London started charging vehicles £ 5 (Rs 383) for every entry into the core city this week in a desperate effort to lift congestion. Mumbai has much the same problem. So, as planners at the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority confirmed to The Indian Express on condition of anonymity, that the city too is considering a kind of congestion tax, — paying for the road length that you use.That doesn’t mean you will be taxed immediately but a transport committee is due to debate the issue soon. That’s timely because the city’s car population is threatening to jam the roads. About 200 new vehicles join the chaos everyday. So the planners are watching to see what happens in London. A solution in the sky MUMBAI: The Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) is all set to get its first ever Light Rail Transit System or Sky Train running across a 10 km stretch between Andheri and Ghatkopar in the western suburbs. The decision was taken at its executive committee meeting on Thursday. The MMRDA arrived at this decision after a feasibility study for a sky-bus operating between Andheri and Ghatkopar had concluded that ‘‘the system is feasible, but further evaluation is required specially with regard to safety and operational reliability.’’ (ENS) ‘‘It is only a matter of time that we too will adopt such a system,’’ said Arun Mokashi, consulting advisor to Tata Consultancy Services and a prominent transport planner.Like London, Mumbai is a former colonial city that grew in an organic, haphazard fashion. Like London, Mumbai also faces potentially insurmountable problems of parking and traffic speed. Some parts of the city now boast of average speeds of 12 km per hour, down from 25 km per hour just over a decade ago.‘‘The scheme can work in Mumbai,’’ agreed S.S. Kshatriya, chairman of the BEST bus service. He said the 600 new buses planned could help augment his existing fleet if such a scheme came into effect. Experts believe better public transport is the key to restricting cars in Mumbai. London wants to push people towards its rail and bus public transport, but that’s in far better shape than Mumbai. ‘‘One is just put off seeing the congestion, the unhygienic condition of trains and buses,’’ argued Sunil Merchant, president of the Western Indian Automobile Association. ‘‘What incentive are we offering to car owners? Car today is not a luxury but a necessity.’’
