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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 8:56:24 pm

Raj snarls at Mumbai traffic chaos

Mumbai: Coming down heavily on Mumbai’s traffic woes, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) President Raj Thackeray said India may boast of a 7.8 pc GDP growth, but what use is a booming economy if citizens struggle to even walk safely on the roads, here on Monday. In scathing inaugural address of the MNS Vahatuk Sena conference in Navi Mumbai, Raj took in a bird’ eye-view and took potshots at the city, state and Centre on urban traffic problems, vanishing footpaths, incessant number of vehicles...

Raj snarls at Mumbai traffic chaos

Mumbai: Coming down heavily on Mumbai’s traffic woes, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) President Raj Thackeray said India may boast of a 7.8 pc GDP growth, but what use is a booming economy if citizens struggle to even walk safely on the roads, here on Monday. In scathing inaugural address of the MNS Vahatuk Sena conference in Navi Mumbai, Raj took in a bird’ eye-view and took potshots at the city, state and Centre on urban traffic problems, vanishing footpaths, incessant number of vehicles spilling onto the already clogged roads, lack of civic or traffic disciplines and unplanned development activities in cities. “Norms stipulate that road should account for 15pc of a city’s total area. But, for example, in Pune, roads comprise barely 7pc of the landscape,” Raj pointed out, slamming the local and state governments for doling out FSI indiscriminately and permitting buildings to mushroom without matching infrastructure. “We have development plans that cater to builders’ interests, but there is no town planning… This is why we are suffering… Should be lick the GDP growth?” he asked sarcastically. Raj claimed that we are busy building bridges and flyovers in the name of development but without adequately assessing the actual requirements, roads are built to last only two years after which they need repairs, natural lakes are being filled up and replaced with skyscrapers, damaging the cityscape, and leading to water shortages. Dwelling on traffic discipline and the government’s apparent inability to enforce it, the MNS chief point out how trucks and tempos routinely ply on the extreme right (fast) lane flouting rules mandating them to be on the left (slow) lanes, how vehicles are randomly parked at street corners obstructing traffic and posing accident hazards, and how intrepid two-wheeler riders believe “that traffic signals are meant for four-wheelers alone”. “When there are traffic signals everywhere, there are also traffic cops… What is the need for this? Why can’t we learn from developed countries where everybody scrupulously adheres to road discipline... I have instructed all my drivers including the police escort vehicles to stick to traffic discipline, come what may,” Raj declared. He shuddered at the mere thought that if Mumbai’s local train networks ever collapsed – there have been many instances in the past – lakhs of commuters would be forced to take out their own vehicles and the city could be completely paralysed. “I have already written to the CM, Deputy CMs and the BMC authorities on the need to curb illegal parking on roads/pavements, demarcate parking zones with red-blue or yellow-black stripes, and make the people aware of it. But nothing has been done on this,” he rued. “Citizens fail to follow traffic rules, the government fails to enforce them, new vehicles are coming onto the roads daily but when there are traffic jams, fingers are pointed at the traffic police,” said Raj. Give me power Ending on a stark political track, Thackeray said creating an orderly civic structure was hardly “rocket science”. “I am eagerly waiting to see the day when the people of Maharashtra will hand over the reins of power to me. I will bring in true order to the state. Enforcing discipline is not a rocket science, it just requires political will,” Raj concluded in a dare.

Indian Shipbuilding A Must Win Marathon

Writer: Capt. Naveen S Singhal
Capt. Naveen S Singhal
Dec 5, 2024
4 min read
Shipbuilding

With a coastline of 7500 KM, it is hard to imagine, that for the first 20 years (1947-1967) India had no ‘shipping ministry’. In 1967 a Shipping ministry “coupled” with ROAD transport was established. Since then, this ministry has been on a name changing ride, not once, not twice but six times. In 2009 the “ROAD Transport and Highways” was de-coupled and ‘Shipping’ ministry was formed. Turning point came in 2015 with a clear maritime vision for 2030 and 2047. Ministry was re-christened, aptly to Ministry of “Ports, Shipping and Waterways” in 2020.


Why is Shipbuilding important for a country?

a. A Shipyard becomes an opportunity hub and like a queen bee requires the support of an industrial colony to manufacture machinery and equipment.

b. National Shipyards support fleet renewal needs of the Navy.

c. Contributes to national GDP, increases inflow of FOREX.


Korea shipbuilding is 8% of GDP. Japan’s automobile industry is 2.9% of GDP. India’s shipbuilding a meagre 0.000578% of GDP. In context, India’s pharmaceutical industry, ranked third largest in the world is 1.72% of India’s GDP.


International Shipbuilding Market

The market is estimated to reach around USD 200 billion by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 4.84%. While India is at bottom with 0.07% of world share, behind Philippines 1.5% and Vietnam 1%, however on the positive side, India has done well in taking care of its defence needs, with 37 of 39 Naval ships being built in India yards. Rear Admiral S Shrikhande researching on maritime as a Fellow at Wollongong University, Australia, says “Shipbuilding in India needs both, serious incentivisation and dogged determination and not harping on being a big ship breaking country. That Garden Reach shipyard has a $54 million order for merchant ships from a German owner, is a good sign.”


Were Shipyards of 20th century in Flight mode?

Prominent shipyards in India were built in the colonial period. Mazagon Dock 1774, Garden reach 1884, Hindustan shipyard 1941 to cater to British navy and merchant fleet needs. Cochin shipyard 1972, Adani Katupalli 2013, Reliance Naval and Engineering, Rajula Gujarat 1997 and others have limited capacity, hence a lot more work to do. Capt. Subhangshu Dutt (Singapore) a mariner and now a shipowner, says “GOI should hold hands in any collaboration till the marriage with the foreign entity is reasonably stable. He also suggests that “new shipbuilding sites should be given to existing successful shipyards since they have decades of experience and talent. Consortium of 3 or more parties may also be good idea”.


Shipbuilding GOLD

As per SPLASH report the demand for LCO2 carriers could reach 2,500 ships by 2050. As per other estimates, 40% of global fleet of ships could have wind propulsion by 2050. A surge in such vessels is due to an unparallel waves of decarbonization in the shipping industry. Demand for ships with ‘carbon neutral’ badges, such as Dual fuel, Wind assisted, Nuclear fuel ships, Hydrogen powered ships, Liquified CO2 (LCO2) carrier, is outstripping supply. A must in the ‘bucket list’ of every Shipyard. Pinning down a standard ROI in shipbuilding is not easy, but experts suggest it could range from 4% to 15% for the high demand ‘carbon neutral’ ships. While an LNG new build vessel could cost US$ 250 million upwards.


International collaboration

On China’s shipbuilding success story, Manoj Pandalanghat (Singapore) a mariner and ship owner believes that “China has around 50 active Shipyards. Each have a few large dry docks. In each dock two or more large vessels are built simultaneously. Thus, a single yard is able to roll out 2/3 vessels/month, 36 vessels/year and 50 shipyards roll out 1800 vessels/year”.


China could be a jaldi-5, but India needs a sturdy Mount Fiji. Besides technology, Japanese bring the most important hand baggage of soft-skills and culture, essential for success from keel laying to delivery. Maruti’s is a standing example.


Food for thought for New Delhi

a. Expertise: Hire Naval Architects and shipbuilding experts with current international experience.

b. Government assistance: Land, Financial support, subsidies and timebound clearances.

c. Monitoring: PMO should monitor the first 5 to 10 years till Shipbuilding takes-off on this long-haul flight to destination 2047.


India’s Shipbuilding is expected to grow to $237 billion by year 2047. On a back of the envelope calculations this works out to about 4% of India’s 2047 projected GDP of $ 5 trillion. While cars are driven on roads, however the Ministry of roads and transport has little to do with “Automobile manufacturing”. On a similar note, ‘Shipbuilding’ as an industry has little to do with Ports, Shipping and Waterways, thus it may be worthwhile to consider a separate ‘Ship-building’ wing in the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways headed by a dynamic cabinet rank minister. Since 2047 targets are stiff and an uphill task, so in all probabilities, the officials in Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways are likely to push beneath the carpet, delays and failures of Shipbuilding with sweet success stories of “Ports, Shipping and Waterways” and if this does happen then India will not only miss the Shipbuilding bus of 21st century but a lot more from a national security and strategic perspective.


(The author is a Shipping and Marine consultant. Member Singapore Shipping Association and empaneled with IMO as a specialist consultant. Views personal.)

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