[Reader-list] 8.9.2001: Transportation Justice

[Mumbai Study Group]

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>.