Mumbai Madness

I don't know how many of you were unfortunate enough to be travelling either on business or leisure in and out of Mumbai in the last week of July 2005, but I was definitely one of those unfortunates and I can vouch for the fact that it certainly wasn't a ‘very pleasant’ travel experience. I am referring to the Great Mumbai Deluge and the week when the commercial capital of this country and the nerve centre of its business travel was brought to its knees by unprecedented rainfall which resulted in the closure of airports, derailment of all modes of transport, roads that resembled rivers and the complete paralysis of all economic activity in that period. While the city and its residents went through hell, spare a thought for those travellers who were not from this city but were forcibly marooned there and those (like me) who were from the city and couldn't get home. On my return to Mumbai after a 72-hour unplanned vacation in Hyderabad (thanks to all cancelled flights), I heard amazing tales of travel misery that really made me believe that I had indeed got off very lightly. While one has to sympathise with everyone involved in this disaster, it is a very sad reflection on the infrastructure that we live with, not only in Mumbai but in every other major city or town in the country. We have great aspirations for our travel industry and the future has never looked so bright but if one looks at the real picture with the surfeit of airlines, the overcrowding in the skies, lack of hotel rooms, land congestion, inadequate connectivity and last but not the least our deplorable airports across the country… it may not even require a natural calamity to make the entire system collapse again in any of our cities.

So while the future remains bright for travel related activity and there is no doubt that sustained economic growth will continue to spur business travel into and within the country, I think the recent situation in Mumbai should serve as a timely eye-opener and is an opportune time for a reality check.

Sheldon Santwan
EDITOR, feBusiness Traveller
Sheldon can be reached at editor@businesstravellerindia.com