Maharashtra: Out of a pothole and into a pod taxi?

Mooted in March and approved by the cabinet in September, the ‘pod taxi project’ between Kurla and BKC (Bandra-Kurla Complex) has run into a wall of public cynicism — with good reason. What was this scheme, Mumbaikars fumed, if not a jumla ahead of the Assembly election (due any time now, with the current Assembly’s term ending in November).

The business district of BKC draws 4-6 lakh footfalls every day but is severely under-serviced by BEST buses and auto-rickshaws. The nearest suburban stations are Bandra and Kurla, merely 2–3 km away in terms of distance but anything between 30-40 minutes in terms of travel time in peak hours.

If officegoers are lucky to squeeze into a shared auto-rickshaw, they pay Rs 30-40 per head. Ola and Uber cabs charge anything between Rs 80 and Rs 100 for the same distance. The ‘auto-rickshaw mafia’ in complicity with the cops often charge even more. Walking on potholed roads with broken pavements is nerve-racking and takes more than 30 minutes each way. So, what are folks to do?

With city planners having bypassed BKC when it came to Metro lines, one suggestion was that corporations run free shuttle buses for their employees. They could pool resources and divert a part of their CSR (corporate social responsibility) funds to run smaller buses seating 36 people at a time. While some can afford to take the air-conditioned app-based Cityflo buses — from the western and eastern suburbs as well as Navi Mumbai into BKC — for the majority the daily commute is a daily nightmare.

Are pod taxis the panacea, then? The perfect solution with fares pegged at 21 bucks per head? That’s what the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) announcement seemed to suggest, but people aren’t jumping for joy.

Driverless electric vehicles on an elevated track, pod taxis have been running at the Dubai, Singapore and Heathrow airports. Heathrow’s pod taxis, operational since 2011, are used to move business class passengers from the parking lot to the terminal, a distance of 3.8 km. Media reports in May 2023 had claimed that India’s first pod taxis would connect Noida International Airport at Jewar (still under construction) to Noida’s Film City, covering a distance of 14.1 km. Though the project was to be completed by the end of 2024, its current status remains unknown.

Even as Sanjay Mukherjee, metropolitan commissioner, MMRDA, gushed about the pod taxi project connecting 8.8 km in Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) with 38 stations along the route, the response from Mumbaikars has been icy. “It’s like using a vacuum cleaner to clean Mumbai’s streets,” quipped one, while another commuter wondered how different the pod taxi would be from an autorickshaw. The only difference, said another, was “shiny glass cabins and an elevated corridor”. Why not use that corridor for electric buses that would move 35 people at a time, he wondered.

Few seem to believe that the project would even take off. Some are disappointed that it will be at least three years before it’s operational. Others are traumatised at the thought of already congested roads being dug up. Wouldn’t a faster and more cost-effective solution be to improve existing roads, add some more BEST bus routes, have better policing at auto stands and make the pavements walk-worthy?

While frustrated commuters have been venting, the more mathematically inclined have taken to back-of-the-envelope calculations. With each pod carrying six passengers and pods running at intervals of 15 seconds, four pods would be able to move 24 passengers every minute. It would thus take an hour to move 1,440 passengers.

With rush hour extending to four hours every morning and evening, an uninterrupted pod taxi service would therefore be able to transport just 5,840 passengers on a single track. The figure would be twice that if two tracks plied — one from Bandra and the other from Kurla. How, they ask, is that going to help the six lakh passengers that frequent BKC daily? Might as well drain the ocean one teaspoon at a time.

Eyebrows were also raised because Sai Green Mobility Pvt. Ltd — the Hyderabad-based company that won the Rs 1,016 crore contract — was incorporated barely six months ago on 14 March 2024. How could a company with an authorised capital of Rs 10 crore and paid-up capital of just one lakh rupees have been awarded a contract worth a thousand crore?

MMRDA defends their choice by citing that Sai Green’s technology partner M/S Ultra PRT has a proven track record of running the operational system at Heathrow airport. They also claim to have conducted a techno-feasibility study peer-reviewed by Tata Consulting Engineers, which recommended pod taxis after taking into account the region’s topography and expected growth of traffic.

The metropolitan commissioner’s statement said, "This project is set to revolutionise last-mile connectivity within BKC, addressing the needs of the 4 to 6 lakh commuters who travel daily to and from the business district. With the anticipated increase in footfall due to upcoming infrastructure developments such as the bullet train and new commercial buildings, the necessity for efficient last-mile connectivity has become paramount."

The project on a public-private partnership (PPP) model anticipates a construction period of three years and a concession period of 30 years. The model includes provisions for a fixed concession fee and a percentage of revenue-sharing with MMRDA. "We believe that the pod taxi project in BKC marks a significant step towards enhancing urban mobility in one of Mumbai’s busiest business districts," Mukherjee’s statement added.

The approval for the pod taxi project is one among several vanity projects being cleared in a rush by the Mahayuti government ahead of the assembly election. Mumbaikars believe that neither the Mahayuti government nor the MMRDA are actually serious about pod taxis, which already appear impractical. They reckon if the BJP coalition wins, it would find some reason to junk the project. And if it loses, well, it was no longer their problem.

Urban planning experts believe the pod taxi project is destined to end up just as badly as the Mumbai monorail project. The MMRDA monorail between Chembur and Mahalaxmi has run up a loss of Rs 500 crore. The country’s first monorail not only failed to attract passengers due to its ‘faulty route’, it failed even to attract tourists and visitors to the city!

Akshay Rautela, cofounder of Delhi-based Instaspaces, was quoted in Mid-Day as claiming that only five per cent of commuters to BKC would be able to afford the projected fare of pod taxis. This number would further dwindle if people were made to wait for more than 15 seconds for the next pod, he added.

Another expert, K.K. Tinguru was equally pessimistic. Skywalks, buses, cycle lanes — not one of them has worked to minimise congestion in this ‘maximum city’. This, he felt, was likely to be just another waste of public money.

BKC is believed to be the most expensive commercial hub in the country and is still growing. The terminal of the Ahmedabad–Mumbai bullet train is also supposed to come up here. Government agencies have not held transparent public consultations. With elections to local bodies including to the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) pending for the past two-and-a-half years, the bureaucracy has had a field day with no questions asked.

A former councillor said, on condition of anonymity, that there was no doubt that the pod taxi project was a scheme promoted with an eye to the election. Had the government been serious about civic issues, he said, it would have paid more attention to crumbling infrastructure, growing traffic congestion, pot-holed roads and local trains bursting at the seams.