[Reader-list] 8.9.2001: Transportation Justice
Mumbai Study Group
kshekhar at bol.net.in
Mon Sep 3 14:34:13 IST 2001
Dear Friends:
Our next meeting will be a special session, co-hosted with the India
Centre for Human Rights and Law, NAGAR, Shivaji Park Dakshata Samiti,
Critical Mass Mumbai, Citispace, Mahikavati Sahakari Macchimar
Society, Maharashtra Macchimar Kruti Samiti, Clean Air, Walkers
Ecological Movement, and others.
The construction of various fly-overs, bridges, and roads continues
apace throughout Greater Mumbai. This despite various investigations
and reports having proven that such transport infrastructure only
supports the 12% of the urban population which uses private and
semi-private modes of transportation, while the remaining majority of
88% of citizens use public modes of transportation. Since the release
of "An Enquiry into the Bandra-Worli Sea Link Project" by the Indian
Peoples Tribunal on Environment and Human Rights (India Centre for
Human Rights and Law, Mumbai, July 2001), numerous citizens groups
and associations have decided to come together to protest this unjust
and unsustainable situation. This meeting is meant to discuss,
debate, and strategise for transportation justice, and an integrated
transport management policy, which meets the needs of the majority of
commuting citizens in Mumbai.
PLEASE NOTE THE CHANGE IN VENUE FOR THIS SPECIAL JOINT MEETING. It
will be held on SATURDAY 8 SEPTEMBER 2001, from 10.00 A.M. to 12.00
P.M., at the YMCA, 12, Wodehouse Road (Nathalal Parekh Marg), Colaba,
Bombay 400039, near Regal Cinema. Phone: 2021316, 2020079.
(NOTE: The Mumbai Study Group remains a non-partisan forum whose
purpose is to foster constructive discussion on urban issues, and
which avoids strict adherence to any political or ideological
positions. However, as we feel that this is an important debate in
which our invitees might wish to be involved, we have decided to
co-host this meeting. However, any resolutions made or decisions
taken in this meeting will not involve or commit the Mumbai Study
Group as an entity.)
ABOUT THE MUMBAI STUDY GROUP
The MUMBAI STUDY GROUP meets on the second and fourth Saturdays of
every month, at the Rachana Sansad, Prabhadevi, Mumbai, at 10.00 A.M.
Our conversations continue through the support extended by Shri
Pradip Amberkar, Principal of the Academy of Architecture, and Prof
S.H. Wandrekar, Trustee of the Rachana Sansad.
Conceived as an inclusive and non-partisan forum to foster dialogue
on urban and global issues, we have since September 2000 held
conversations about various historical, political, legal, cultural,
social and spatial aspects of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Our
discussions are open and public, no previous membership or
affiliation is required. We encourage the participation of urban
researchers and practitioners, experts and non-experts, researchers
and students, and all individuals, groups and associations in Mumbai
to join our conversations about the the city.The format we have
evolved is to host individual presentations or panel discussions in
various fields of urban theory and practice, and have a moderated and
focussed discussion from our many practical and professional
perspectives: whether as architects or planners, lawyers or
journalists, artists or film-makers, academics or activists.Through
such a forum, we hope to foster an open community of urban citizens,
which clearly situates Mumbai in the theories and practices of
urbanism globally.
Previous sessions have hosted presentations by the following individuals:
Kalpana Sharma, Associate Editor of The Hindu; Kedar Ghorpade, Senior
Planner at the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority; Dr
Marina Pinto, Professor of Public Administration, retired from Mumbai
University; Dr K. Sita, Professor of Geography, retired from Mumbai
University, and former Garware Chair Professor at the Tata Institute
of Social Sciences; Dr Arjun Appadurai, Professor of Anthropology at
the University of Chicago, Director of Partners for Urban Knowledge
Action & Research (PUKAR), Mumbai; Rahul Srivastava, Lecturer in
Sociology at Wilson College; Sandeep Yeole, General Secretary of the
All-India Pheriwala Vikas Mahasangh; Dr Anjali Monteiro, Professor
and Head, and K.P. Jayashankar, Reader, from the Tata Institute of
Social Sciences Unit for Media and Communications; Dr Sujata Patel,
Professor and Head, Department of Sociology, University of Pune; Dr
Mariam Dossal, Head, Department of History, Mumbai University;
Sucheta Dalal, business journalist and Consulting Editor, Financial
Express; Dr Arvind Rajagopal, Associate Professor of Culture and
Communications at New York University; Dr Gyan Prakash, Professor of
History at Princeton University, and member of the Subaltern Studies
Editorial Collective; Dr Sudha Deshpande, Reader in Demography,
retired from the Department of Economics, Mumbai University and
former consultant for the World Bank, International Labour
Organisation, and Bombay Municipal Corporation; Sulakshana Mahajan,
doctoral candidate at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban
Planning, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, U.S.A., and former
Lecturer, Academy of Architecture, Rachana Sansad.
Previous panel discussions have comprised of the following individuals:
S.S. Tinaikar, former Municipal Commissioner of Bombay, Sheela Patel,
Director of the Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centres
(SPARC), and Bhanu Desai of the Citizens' Forum for the Protection of
Public Spaces (Citispace) on urban policy making and housing; Shirish
Patel, civil engineer and urban planner, Pramod Sahasrabuddhe and
Abhay Godbole, structural engineers on earthquakes and the built form
of the city; B. Rajaram, Managing Director of Konkan Railway
Corporation, and Dr P.G. Patankar, from Tata Consultancy Services,
and former Chairman of the Bombay Electric Supply & Transport
Undertaking (BEST) on mass public transport alternatives; Ved Segan,
Vikas Dilawari, and Pankaj Joshi, conservation architects, on the
social relevance of heritage and conservation architecture; Debi
Goenka, of the Bombay Environmental Action Group, Professor Sudha
Srivastava, Dr Geeta Kewalramani, and Dr Dipti Mukherji, of the
University of Mumbai Department of Geography, on the politics of land
use, the city's salt pan lands, and the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ)
Act.
We invite all urban researchers, practitioners, students, and other
interested individuals to join us in our fortnightly conversations,
and suggest topics for presentation and discussion. For any more
information, kindly contact one of the Joint Convenors of the Mumbai
Study Group: ARVIND ADARKAR, Architect, Researcher and Lecturer,
Academy of Architecture, Phone 2051834, <adarkars at vsnl.com>; DARRYL
D'MONTE, Journalist and Writer, 6427088 <darryl at vsnl.com>; SHEKHAR
KRISHNAN, Coordinator-Associate, Partners for Urban Knowledge Action
& Research (PUKAR), 4462728, <pukar at bol.net.in>; PANKAJ JOSHI,
Conservation Architect, Lecturer, Academy of Architecture, and PUKAR
Associate, 8230625, <pjarch at vsnl.com>.
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