Mumbai roads suck big time !

When driving in Mumbai you have to make sure that you sit on the edge of your seat since you never know when the next bump will throw your vehicle up in the air and you bang your head on the roof !

Bang your head, jar your spine and (maybe) break your neck - this is a distinct possibility. As real as riding a bike and getting your throat slit by sharp kite string (manjha).

Yes sir, I have had my brush with possible death when I was riding a bike and hit kite manjha - grazed my neck and I immediately reached up to save myself. Cut my hand, grazed my neck, missed my jugular, kept my balance - and I have lived to see many more days of my life.

OK to come back to Mumbai roads - practically every road is uneven whether the road has a tarred surface or is a concrete road. I mean how bad can it get ... a concrete road with an uneven surface. You get a load of bumps as you drive.

Then you arrive at a crossing and you ready yourself like you are walking on glass. Potlholes, uneven surfaces, loose paving blocks and jutting edges - all combining forces to snuff the life out of you or your tyre or wheel-rim or your vehicle.

Trying to save time using one of the 50 odd flyovers that dot the city and you had better slow down when you approach the ramp - the flyover is one step up ! Whoops - you get a nasty bump as your vehicle hits this step which can be anything from 2 or 3 inches to 5 or 6 inches. Imagine the hit you get when you approach at 60 kmph and how bad it is for you and/or your vehicle.

Does this make you wonder about the quality of the work ? Or about the quality of the inspection done by the Project Engineers in the Municipal corporation ? Or about the skills of the engineers who have executed the work ? And about the skills of the contractor ??

To be sure there is a lot of money which changes hands and how else how can one explain the ABSOLUTELY shoddy work that one has to live with day in and day out. Roads in other cities are not sooooo bad and I am talking about Delhi / Hyderabad / Chennai in comparison ! Mumbai is the pits.

While infrastructure does suck why cant we do a good job of whatever we are doing ? Compare with some countries in Africa which are light years behind us in development / economy and we are so bad in terms of quality that it is shameful.

I am going to take some pictures and mark the crap-spots on Google maps... so keep watching for updates.