'my city, my problem, my dna': levy congestion tax to ease traffic, says rahul asthana

Outgoing MMRDA chief calls for stiff charges, action against illegal parking. The chairman of Mumbai’s principal planning authority believes that only tough measures can resolve the

commuting problems in the city. Rahul Asthana has been at the helm of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) for two years and he should know. Talking to journalists at

his Bandra office on Wednesday, Asthana agreed that road traffic in the city is at saturation point and he talked about two ways to decongest the roads immediately. One, “there should be a

restriction on the movement of cars during rush hours by levying a congestion charge,” Asthana said. And two, vehicle buyers should be charged a heavy fee for registration depending on the

capacity of the engine, which would dissuade people from having more vehicles. Thursday is Asthana’s last day with MMRDA as he has been given a new assignment by the state government to head

the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC). The 1978 batch IAS officer was chairman of the Mumbai Port Trust before taking charge of MMRDA. Asthana was also critical about the

wrongful parking of vehicles on most roads which is a major cause of bottlenecks. He said, “Removing all the vehicles parked on the road could add an additional lane to almost all arterial

roads. Abroad, people park their cars kilometres away from their destinations.” The MMRDA chief said that he had listed this matter during one of his meetings with the traffic department.

Asthana pointed out that there was a limitation to widening the roads in the city. On the other option to go vertical with elevated roads like the eastern freeway connecting Orange Gate and

Ghatkopar, he said this would help for a few years till the traffic increases and these roads get jammed too. “There is a limit to going elevated,” he said. While rail projects like the

metro would take off some of the burden, Asthana said there had to be a restriction on cars in the city. “There should be a restriction on cars in Mumbai by levying a congestion charge

during rush hours,” he said. Another possibility is to adopt the Singapore system where car buyers have to pay a substantial amount over and above the cost of the vehicle, to get a

certificate of entitlement. These steps, in addition to better traffic management would definitely change the face of commuting in the city, he said.  On the rail system, Asthana has been

pushing for an elevated metro on the Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd section. However, his personal belief is that Mumbai would do better with an underground rail system. _@tweetateeq_