11.24 kms Aarey

11.24 kms in Aarey Forest, Mumbai. Took the regular unit no. 16 and the Aarey Guest House and also added the Diary road today. Weather in Aarey was absolutely humid with not a hint of breeze whatsoever. Aarey Forest is such a beautiful place, an oasis in the bustling city of Mumbai, a paradise of sorts. Don't understand government apathy in destroying such a beautiful natural eco system which is virtually the lungs of Mumbai. Especially when there are alternative sites for construction of the metro car shed government insistence on destroying aarey forest is nothing short of arrogance and cruelty. Cruelty it is to the thousands of birds, insects etc. residing in this beautiful forest. Every time you go to Aarey Forest you feel so refreshed, it is the pure oxygen which is the hallmark of this place. I suspect there is corruption and greed in commercially exploiting this pristine piece of nature.  

JVLR woes!!

When the Jogeshwari Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR) was being constructed, MMRDA told us that after the JVLR is built, travel from Eastern Express Highway (EEH) to Western Express Highway (WEH) will be in 20 minutes, that's right 20 minutes flat with no stoppages whatsoever!! Bullshit!! Today it takes anything from 1 hour to 2 hours to just traverse this link road connecting the eastern suburbs of Mumbai to the western suburbs. Still the Powai section of this road is bearable. It is when you cross the SEEPZ flyover that you run into humongous traffic jam, all the way to the WEH. It just simply stops, crawls, stops, sputters, stops. There are so many traffic signals, so many criss crosses that one simply gets bored at this stretch. Nowadays it seem the Aarey road has been blocked ostensibly for a fallen bridge during the August 29 downpour, but who knows what is the real reason ? It doesn't take that much time for repair of a bridge. 

Mumbai Railway Stations

The exits at practically every railway station in Mumbai is choc-a-block with share autos, hawkers, etc. I know of Goregaon east and west which is in bad shape, east more so. Hawkers have descended on the skywalks as well. In the Goregaon skywalk from station to the S.V. road there are hawkers at one end, druggies at other end, in between the lights are stolen, tiles are gone, the spitoons are gone, the waste buckets are gone. But that is a different matter. It is the crowd that we are talking about, its a total mess. Andheri east and west, both are very bad. Chembur is mess on both sides and so is Ghatkopar. Kurla is horrible. Vashi & CBD Belapur are good. Borivli is bad and so is Malad and Kandivli. Dadar is atrocious to say the least. The only station where i found open space near the station is at Mira Road where i had gone recently. No autos or stalls were allowed in that open space. But that was in the early morning hours, so don't know the situation there in the evening hours. So these share autos and hawkers are being protected by the neta mafia, otherwise why would they be allowed to set up stalls there. Decongestion of the area near the railway stations should be done otherwise if there is an accident at the railway tracks, how will the ambulance move smoothly to the nearest hospital within the designated time.