If there is something that has caught the imagination of Mumbaikars, over the past few days, like never before then it was the grand opening of Mumbai Metro rail. Frenzy that was palpable on the first day was unprecedented. Though none of us existed when the first train was inaugurated way back in 1853, but I am quite certain that the excitement then was not even fraction of what we saw this time around! People from all walks of life gathered at Ghatkopar/Versova station to get a glimpse and firsthand experience of a 4-coach train covering 12 stations that was expected to change (for good) the way Mumbai looked at transport system. To be honest, excitement was justified considering the delay and the wait all of us had been subjected to! Multiple dates had been declared over the past few months for the start of metro but every time it was postponed to a later date.
Ages before it actually started running, people had started talking about it in social circles, online, on radio etc. Then it was time for the D-day! My friends and I decided to take an afternoon ride thinking (hoping) we would avoid rush. We boarded the train from Ghatkopar (the king of suburbs) and reached Versova in 20 odd minutes flat! To say it was a dream-like situation would be an understatement as people generally spend about 20 minutes waiting for Versova bound buses! Since the token acted as a one-way ticket, we had to get the same for the return journey and that is when the dream turned into a nightmare! Since most of the travelers on the first day had come for a one-off ride and in turn taken a one-way token, they all had queued up for a return token which resulted in queues longer than we had imagined when we embarked on the historic and life-changing journey! A little tiring experience considering it was supposed to be a leisure trip. Finally we boarded the train for our way back to Ghatkopar. But then, the bigger surprise was yet to come when owing to a technical snag it took us more than 50 minutes to reach our destination. Halt time at station was more than the time it took to get to the station! One could sense the feeling of surprise/frustration/shock from fellow passengers’ faces. But at the end of the day, what was nice to see was that everyone showed a big heart and forgave the technical error thinking it was a one-off thing. It was a big achievement for Mumbai and the sense of pride had out powered the sense of frustration.
Next day saw newspapers, radio and online media covering the same with great interest. Though the technical error was mentioned, overall it was a very positive coverage (and rightly so). It just goes to show Mumbai’s positive attitude towards things in general. From the first day onwards, more than 2 lac people have been using the metro on daily basis. But then good things don’t last much, do they? I was travelling in Gujarat when I got pictures showing hundreds of people who got stuck at Ghatkopar station as the shutters were brought down due to over-crowding! I am not sure whether this was again due to some technical error or some management issue but it was a little disappointing. Hopefully, these are all teething troubles and things will smoothen out in future. Life has always been good in our metro (Mumbai) and now with metro (rail) in place, it will only get better!
