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By:

Minal Sancheti

2 May 2026 at 12:26:53 pm

Lost in Transport

Mumbai’s grand transport infrastructure is undermined by potholes, Poor discipline and a last-mile gaps that keeps it crawling Mumbai: It is morning time, and Pawan Khandelwal is all set to leave for work. A creative lead at an ad agency in Malad, Mumbai, Khandelwal should take 12 to 15 minutes to reach the office, but that rarely happens because of the traffic, poor road quality and lack of civic sense among co-drivers on the road. He mostly ends up reaching the office in 30 to 40 minutes....

Lost in Transport

Mumbai’s grand transport infrastructure is undermined by potholes, Poor discipline and a last-mile gaps that keeps it crawling Mumbai: It is morning time, and Pawan Khandelwal is all set to leave for work. A creative lead at an ad agency in Malad, Mumbai, Khandelwal should take 12 to 15 minutes to reach the office, but that rarely happens because of the traffic, poor road quality and lack of civic sense among co-drivers on the road. He mostly ends up reaching the office in 30 to 40 minutes. Khandelwal firmly believes that road construction is not a major issue for traffic. “The road under construction is not a big issue because they usually don’t take very long to repair the roads. But even after their work is done, it is not done perfectly. At times when they are digging up the road for other purposes, they often leave a bump or a pothole,” he said. He gives an example, “One can see it on the western express highway. There are so many bumps. We call it a highway, but we can’t even drive at 15 km/h because it is not fixed properly.” He also blames people for not following traffic rules, which adds to the problem. Traffic Woes Although there are coastal roads and metros available, the traffic still seems to be a problem for many residents. A media professional and a daily commuter, Charlene Flanagan has been travelling in Mumbai for many years now. There is not much difference in her experience of the traffic congestion. From her experience, she believes the coastal roads and metros have not completely accomplished the mission of curbing traffic congestion. She says, “As a resident of Mumbai and as a person with a valid driver’s licence, I would say the traf f ic hasn’t really changed. It is still as congested, and whether the coastal roads have helped depends on the time of the day you leave and whether you are going against the traffic or along with the traffic.” The pedestrians also face problems. Saloni Mehta, a theatre artiste, says, “I prefer walking to my destinations. For example, I live in Versova, and if I want to see a play in the Prithvi Theatre, I will take a half-hour walk. However, this one time, I could not reach the venue, not just because of the traffic but also because there were no pavements left to walk on. The roads are dug up, and every road is just half a road.” Mumbai’s average speed covered is 5.2 km per 15 minutes. During the peak traffic hours in the morning, when most people travel to their workplace, the average speed is 18.5 km/h. It is important to understand the issue and address it with a solution. Sudhir Badami, an author of the book ‘Matter of Equitability - Making Commuting in Mumbai Enviable’, explains why people still prefer to use cars over metros, “The metro line 3 has definitely taken away some car users. But it has not taken away sufficient numbers of car users to make a difference in the state of road congestion. The reason behind this is essentially the last-mile connectivity in areas where the Aqua Line or Line 7 operates, especially in suburban areas. In the city area, it is supported by good BEST services on the one hand, and taxis being available near the metro stations on the other hand. But most car users still opt for using their cars, as public transport currently does provide assured exclusivity, comfort and good frequency, not forgetting last mile connectivity. The Coastal Road sees very few cars compared to the number of cars on Mumbai’s Roads. Badami, as a transportation analyst, says, “Mumbai has approximately 16 Lakhs motor cars, out of which only about 55,000 seem to be using coastal roads. It is such a minuscule proportion for whom so much has been spent. This is largely because in the city, people don’t go from one end of the city to the other end. They normally start from in between and go somewhere in between. If there is not much time saving for the shorter stretches, then people are not likely to take it, and there will be continued congestion on city roads.” “In general, the necessity of the last-mile connectivity is an important part, but the greater part will be how to get car users onto the public transport,” says Badami. Public transport must provide near exclusivity, comfort and safety to a car-using commuter for migration to take place. This is where the importance of last-mile connectivity is felt. Air Pollution The slow-moving traffic also adds to the air pollution in the city several times more than when they are moving at optimum speeds, he says. Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Mumbai, Anil Kumbhare, denies that there is much traffic congestion in Mumbai as compared to five years back. He credits the coastal roads for curbing the traffic. He says, “Earlier, there used to be bumper-to bumper traffic near Haji Ali. That has come down drastically. As coastal roads shape, the traffic will go down.” He also adds that there is traffic congestion in the morning hours as people are travelling for work. But there is no traffic jam. Although coastal roads have helped, there are still pockets of the city that face traffic congestion every day. This can be solved with careful planning and execution.

Elections and the Constitution: A Voter’s Guide

Part 2: Two Different Acts and Detailed Provisions

The part 1 of this series traced the constitutional foundations of India’s election system, outlining the powers of the Election Commission under Articles 324–329. It explained how electoral rolls are mandated, how commissioners are appointed and protected, and why independence of the Commission is central to free and fair elections.


Part 2 focuses on the Representation of the People Acts of 1950 and 1951, arguing that understanding the specific legal provisions governing voter registration and electoral rolls is crucial to grasping how India’s electoral process functions in practice.


The Representation of the People Act, 1950, and the Representation of the People Act, 1951, are different. The provisions that are not in the 1950 Act are found in the 1951 Act. The detailed explanation regarding elections is in the 1951 Act. Whereas, all the information regarding voter registration and electoral rolls is found in the Representation of the People Act, 1950. The provisions regarding electoral rolls are found in Parts 2(B) and 3 of the same Act. As per the provision of Section 13 (D), it is clear that there will be no separate electoral roll for the Lok Sabha elections. This provision states that the latest electoral roll for the assembly constituencies falling under the respective Lok Sabha constituency will be deemed to be the electoral roll for the Lok Sabha constituency.


As per Section 15, an electoral roll will be prepared for each assembly constituency. It states that this electoral roll will be prepared under the supervision of the Election Commission of India in accordance with the provisions of this Act. This Act has given all powers to the Election Commission of India regarding the electoral roll.


Section 16 provides a detailed explanation of who is disqualified from being registered as a voter. If the person concerned is not a citizen of India, has been declared by a competent court to be of unsound mind, and has been disqualified under law for having committed an illegal act or other offence in the election, he shall be disqualified as a voter, and his name shall be removed from the electoral roll. If the competent court later decides that he cannot be disqualified, his name shall be restored to the relevant electoral roll, as is also stated in the same section.


It is clear from this that there are only two prerequisites for registration in the electoral roll. One of them is that the person concerned must be a citizen of India and must have attained the age of 18 years. If these two conditions are fulfilled, then that person can be registered as a voter.


According to Section 17, any voter can register as a voter in only one constituency. This means that each voter can vote only once in each election. For this reason, since the 1960s, ink has been applied to the left index finger of a voter who goes to vote.


Indrajit Barua vs. Central Election Commission

This case is considered to be an important case in the history of the Central Election Commission. In this case, the petitioners had challenged the 1979 electoral rolls in Assam in the Supreme Court. The petitioners had claimed that the names of many non-citizens of India were included in the electoral rolls. In this judgement, the Supreme Court laid down three things in total.


One – The provisions of the law should be strictly followed while including anyone’s name in the electoral roll.


Two – If any voter objects to the inclusion of another voter’s name in the electoral roll, he should prove it before the competent authorities. For example, if a voter objects to the inclusion of another voter’s name in the electoral roll and says that the other voter is not a citizen of India, therefore his name should be excluded from the electoral roll; in such a case, the person who has objected should prove that the other voter is not a citizen of India. This is what is called ‘burden of proof’.


Three – Objections to the inclusion of names in the electoral roll should be decided by the competent authority. While making this selection, the concerned authority should take sufficient care so that only the names of persons who are Indian citizens are included in the electoral roll.


More in the next instalment.


(The writer is an author and digital journalism teacher. Views personal.)

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