South Bombay: Why it stands out from the rest of India

As far as I know, there is only one Indian city whose residents say life has improved in the last five years.

- MANU JOSEPH

That is South Mumbai, which is correctly pronounced ‘South Bombay.’ People who don’t know Mumbai think South Bombay is the southern tip of Mumbai. That is not the way to consider it. It is a separate city.

Across India, the upper class complains of a deterioration in public spaces, except in South Bombay. Every affluent resident I have met is all praise for what has happened to their town in recent times. And what has happened is that new sea links, including an undersea tunnel, have eased traffic congestion in South Bombay, which was in any case not all that congested by general urban Indian standards. Also, their connectivity to the suburbs has improved, though such a connection with real India is not a major requirement for them, except when they have to go to the airport located there.

If you start for South Bombay from the airport area, which has a mofussil gloom to it, you eventually get on a majestic cable stay bridge and there is suddenly the drama of a great city looming. Once in South Bombay, there are even broad walkways of expensive material that are rare for pedestrians in India. Then there is another sea bridge that takes you to two parallel old-money streets. Somewhere along the way, Mukesh Ambani’s skyscraper stands gleaming. Then an undersea tunnel begins that, like magic, takes you to Marine Drive in less than ten minutes, a journey that earlier used to take more than half an hour.