Golf is played on golf links and pool is played on a billiards table. But we can play pool on the link! The Traffic Police, Mayor and even the honourable Bombay High Court are desperately seeking solutions to reduce the traffic problems. Little do they realise that the link has only aggravated the problem instead of solving it. By providing one more avenue to reach south Mumbai, many more will be incentivised to use cars more frequently or even buy one. All that is needed is to shift the offices in south Mumbai to Bandra/Dharavi and the government of Maharashtra and the High Court outside Mumbai to a more central location — say Parbhani.
So here is a scheme to increase car pools. Why not have a special scheme where four cars are authorised on one pass provided each car has three people in it? There should be a concession for such “poll passes”. Incidentally, people should not get fooled by the length of the link — 5.6 km. The correct way to estimate whether there is a distance advantage is to take the distance between the two ‘choice points’ at the southern and northern end. The southern choice point is at Haji Ali and the northern one is at the junction where you can choose between the link and the Mahim Causeway. The actual distance between these two points by either route is nearly the same. So there is no distance advantage. As far as time is concerned, the more the fools who pay to take the link, the better it is for the other smarter ones!
T R Ramaswami, Mumbai
