Terrible Tuesday

[ashoksoft 83]

and ... phir bhi it remains the financial capital of india... The hub for most businesses ... and that does speak something about the feelings of every mumbaikar towards this city....

BTW when comparing cities .... compare cities of equal stature .... which is tough to find one competing with mumbai.

The people know the art and sprit of helping one another in crisis.... In fact even today we had rains as good as on 26th but the difference is that the city has been PREPARED for it...

The drains have been cleared (so no water clogging), and emergency measures have been set up....

Remember the time when there was no power in NYC for 2 hours a few years back, well that was rated as the worst days... but the spirit of every mumbaikar makes him enjoy every situation...

Tell me one city where even after a bomb blast, life gets back to normal in hours?

Be a part of the experience before u blow out bhutes...

Ashok

[SexyGurl 0]

I believe in highlighting what's wrong ... so that atleast no one has the excuse that "we didn't know things were that bad".

I am not cursing anyone for causing the bad state .... just that it needs to be improved a lot.

EDIT: Actually, I could curse somebody ... Jai LEFT FRONT -- cause of all the problems of India. I am really amazed how seeming sensible people (like calcuttans can vote for LEFT FRONT ????)

Edited August 1, 2005 by bhutes

[ashoksoft 83]

LOL!!!! Bhutes ... no offence intended ... even I was bringing out "THE BEST" of the city... btw America also crumpled when 2 planes crashed into 2 buildings.. and OMG look at the security hikes they have had since...

Mumbai still takes everyfeeling in its stride...

Btw there are a few snaps which I have taken of the rains (as well as a few from some web sites ), which I will post soon

Cheers

Ashok

[Puneet 0]

Last Tuesday was a hell, even a well-thinking engineer/planner would not design sewer and drainage system for 37 inches of rain in a single day (that is way too much man), and to top it all when all your drainage lines are below sea-level and you need continous pumping to discharge - a high tide would make the mattes worse. And all this happened last Tuesday. However, this doesn't gives anyone an escape route because preparedness was such that the city was flooded when it had rained only 12 inches.

And I would not say that city was better prepared this time (it has been raining cats and dogs since yesterday), but the rain god has been good enough to provide windows of relief, which help in draining the water logged areas to a certain extent. So we have 3 feet of water on streets instead of 6.

Mumbai needs LOTS and LOTS of money and political will-power if it indeed wants to match the most developed cities. Delhi has been getting better and better roads every year, and now it has the metro too (maybe being the national capital helps). Mumbai should have had Metro a good 20 years ago. The MUTP and MUIP should have been in place a good 5 years ago. Hopefully, by the time we are done with these two, Mumbai would not have again outgrown the planning (sigh!!!). And, hopefully, Mumbai authorities would learn a thing from Delhi Metro, Delhi Police and Delhi goverment to plan the development causing least disturbance to the public with proper traffic planning.

[ashoksoft 83]

Look at navi mumbai... it won some International award recently... for excellent City plan.

[anujit 0]

Hey RIM won an international award for R-World..... fantastic WAP implementation they said!

And I have no complaints against any govt. Actually I have complaints against all govts. but I wont get into that (for now)!

But I'm extremely disappointed with Pune... it rained and it rained all weekend and Monday and not a single inch of water logging! And I had to trudge to work in the freak*i*n rain and back on a cold wet Monday monring!

[ashoksoft 83]

Next time we have floods in Mumbai we will try to inform the govt to please pump the water to Pune, coz Anujit does not want to go to office!!!

[raccoon 53]

Next time we have floods in Mumbai we will try to inform the govt to please pump the water to Pune, coz Anujit does not want to go to office!!!

37016[/snapback]

Dont even dream about it! We have enuf water here of our own! We aint intrested in getting flooded!

Still my sympathies to you Bombaites...

[anujit 0]

Ashok:

Important to note here that the pumps in Bbay dont work. Which is why you got flooded in the first place....couldnt discharge it out in to the sea fast enough!

It might be better if you prayed to the raingods.

Raccoon:

We don't have enough water here. Where did you see any water today!

And I dont want it to flood so bad that people die and property is damaged etc. Just enough so that I dont have to go to work and everyone can stay home safe and sound!

[city02 63]

Look at navi mumbai... it won some International award recently... for excellent City plan.

37002[/snapback]

i think they might have bribed someone for that award

south delhi is literally 2-3 times better planned than navi mumbai!

in my 6 months living in nerul, i have seen load shedding, water shortages, roads that dissolve within the first week of rain, traffic congestion (people don't understand how to navigate round-abouts/circles), speed breakers that scrape the bottom of your car, no drainage on the sides of roads, very few sidewalks for pedestrians, slums coming up in vashi, no multiplex, no place to go other than centre one mall which looks like a train station on weekends with people falling over each other as they try to get on the escalators...

the list goes on and on.

a proper slope/gradient needs to be provided on roads to drain off rain water to the sides and more gutters need to be built along them.

there are no drains for palm beach marg let alone a proper slope.

round abouts need to be replaced with traffic lights in vashi.

slums need to be stopped immediately.

trucks should be banned during daytime as in delhi to ease congestion (8am - 8pm, Mon - Fri).

even better would be to double the toll for all heavy vehicles during daytime hours so the extra money made can be used for road repairs.

all this does not include the havoc caused in the last week due to excess rain...

the AVERAGE american city is much cleaner and better planned than ANY part of navi mumbai!

its an embarrasment to the entire state but we have no choice if we want to avoid long commutes so we stay on and accept the mess and chaos

i fully agree that other parts of mumbai may be worse off but we are not competing with the worst!

its not even close to being the best planned city in india so the award committee must have given it on the basis of plans on paper as opposed to seeing the ground realities.

[SexyGurl 0]

If the situation is so bad that you need pump out water to the sea ... (i.e. it won't drain out itself) .... I think would be better off with an elevated Metro, (rather than underground).

But the elevated Metro does spoil the skyline of any city (... though, for the commuters of an elevated Metro get some very good views, as certain points).

Delhi Metro cost about 5400 crores for about 54 kms. ... so around 100 crore per km !!!!

Know what my mother said, listening to that figure: They could've distributed 100 crores among the people living that 1 km region. Even if 10,000 people live within 1km ... each would have got 1 lacs

Metro is that costly !!

[raccoon 53]

Coming back to the topic ...I'v been speaking to a few friends of mine in Bombay ...and everyone seems to have variant observations! Some told me only BPL was working, someone else said only Airtel and another said MTNL....etc, etc. And this thread suggests that RIM was the least affected! Im amused!

Mebbe it was area dependent...

[anujit 0]

Maybe its just band bajaoing!

[ashoksoft 83]

On that particular day ... BPL did give service (but only after 7.30 PM) and Reliance was the only connection which was running perfect..

MTNL ko maaro goli, at some places it was working, my Gf's place MTNL - DID NOT work. My dad has a Dolphin and my sis has a Trump -> NEITHER WORKED.

Airtel -=- It was working initially .... but after the crisis emerged ... the network was kaboomed... (lots of friends on airtel).

Orange = One heavy rain and the network crashed ... as if nothing had ever existed.... Proof ... a classmate of mine (orange user), who never ever refilled his RIM saying about misbillings... suddenly calls me up to ask if I was safe... from a RIM. When I asked him, he said "NO MORE ORANGE" no network at all!!!!

Cheers RIM (but hey... I am still unable to contact customer care)

Ashok

[Puneet 0]

I was talking to a friend today about the mobiles and he has exhausted a Rs 550 voucher in a week which normally lasts him a month - reason being his friends (who have Orange, Trump or Airtel) used his mobile to call their homes last Tuesday/Wednesday as his was the only mobile working, rest all had failed .

And I do know people who have decided to move on to RIM after the last week.

[ashoksoft 83]

Damn true puneet bhai.... lot of my buddies are also shifting over to rim now/.... Hope to see a few more 3l33+ hacx on RIM ... hehehehe do u think we need a poll on this ?

[jusmail 0]

LOL, rains increase RIM subscriber base!!!!!

Also any corelation can you infer:

December 26: Tsunami

May 26: Heavy rains in Bangalore, uprooting 150 trees (lost my motherboard to lightning), and now,

July 26: 94 cm of rain flooding Bombay

[Puneet 0]

Add to that:

Earthquake in Bhuj: Jan 26

And there are a few others too, let me remember and I'll edit this post to include them.

[Arun 795]

It`s pouring money for cellular firms

Mumbai August 03, 2005

For the mobile operators in Maharashtra, the monsoon mayhem was a blessing in disguise. The state, which is divided into two telecom circles — Mumbai and Rest of Maharashtra (RoM) — registered a spurt in outgoing calls and SMSs, as cell phones was the easiest — and sometimes the only — mode of communication available.

The increase in usage was as high as 50 per cent for certain companies on certain days of the rain-hit week — that is from July 25 to July 31. Except for Reliance Infocomm, all other operators registered rise in outgoing calls and SMSs.

Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) registered a 50 per cent increase in outgoing calls on July 26, the worst rain-hit day of the past week. The CDMA-based cellular service provider had clocked around 13.8 million calls on that day in Mumbai, compared with 9.5 million calls it normally registers on a daily basis.

For RoM, it was around 8.5 million calls, up by 21.43 per cent, from 7 million calls that were being registered on a daily basis, according to TTSL Managing Director Charles Antony.

TTSL also recorded a 50 per cent increase in SMSes during the week, with its subcribers sending around 1.65 million messages, compared to a daily average of 1.1 million SMSes. The increase in usage was not steady during the week, as it fluctuated on certain days, he said.

Mobile operator Airtel recorded 51 per cent rise in outgoing calls on July 28. The service provider had made all outgoing calls free for 24 hours from July 27 (Wednesday) 6 pm, which resulted it in clocking the maximum number of outgoing calls on July 28, Thursday .

The operator had posted a rise in outgoing calls during the rain-hit week, even though figures were not immediately available.

Industry observers believe that the rise in company’s outgoing calls from its network ranged between 20 per cent and 30 per cent.

Orange also posted an increase in outgoing calls, even though the figures were yet to be collated. The increase was also reflected in SMSs, according to Orange Chief Operating Officer Harit Nagpal.

“There was an increase in both voice and data usage, but we won’t be able to quantify at this point of time. The rise was natural, as people were anxious to find out about their near and dear ones,” he added.

However, Reliance Infocomm Ltd (RIC) did not register any rise in calls between the company’s handsets (Reliance to Reliance). On the contrary, it registered a slight dip in calls from its network to other networks.

An RIC spokesperson said that the company’s network was sturdy and functional during the week, while the dip in calls were due to network failure at the receiving end. “What was important for us was to maintain our network, rather than enhancing usage at a time of crisis,” he said.

[anujit 0]

Well what a post Arun! And considering the debacle with REL I'm not sure how good RIM is in times of crisis.

The Ambanis have a lot to learn about consumer services. REL - their 2nd consumer oriented business is suffering like RIM did (and probably still does)!

[SexyGurl 0]

I would tend not to count REL .. as a Reliance-group company at soul.

It's really BSES .... built by someone else .... and very likely yet to absorb the soul of Reliance. (so it continues to carry the good as well as bad things from the past).

With that, I am not saying that Reliance is (or is not) good at consumer servives. (that is not the point of discussion) ---> The key strength of Reliance has been doing things at a MEGA SCALE. ... essentially including EXECUTION, MANAGEMENT of such MEGA PROJECTS.

It was by no means easy for anyone to execute the Jamnagar refinery project .... or to execute the Infocomm. (.. and not to forget the Hazira complex: about 1 million tpa ethylene cracker)

I myself doubt if such executions could ever be done, in all fair and honest way .... they did step over other people's toes .... did a lot of dirty things under the carpet .... but still, they delivered in a phenomenal way, like no one else has known to have done (atleast in India) .. Eh, remember Tata Steel's 10 million tpa steel project at Gopalpur ? (ok, Indica is a rather puny exception)

In my opinion, a big problem for Infocomm is that Anil doesn't seem to show those very key features for which Dhirubhai's (and very likely, Mukesh's) Reliance has been known for : MEGA EXECUTIONS !!!

To be frank, I am rather glad, bulk of Reliance funds are still in the hands of Mukesh ... from where I think more Mega Projects are likely to emerge.

REL, RIC and rest of Anil's cr*p is not showing promising signals, to me atleast.

[anujit 0]

Anil didnt create RIM, Mukesh did.

Anil's been here barely a month or two!

[SexyGurl 0]

Oh yeah, Mukesh built RIM .... and that's why he seems to fall in Dhirubhai category.

And Anil doesn't seem to .... he has REL's Dadri fiasco against his name.

Actually, in my opinion, Infocomm was significantly more challenging project than anything else Reliance did ever before ... including the refinery :

Consider the mind-boggling risks, investment, uncertainty, political interfaces involved -- 80,000 km of optic fiber spread all over india, including Bihar, Leftist Bengal, heavily forested MP, the Deccan ... political approvals, at all levels for Right of Way .. (Compared to this Jamnagar was a single location investment). Political interface required for Jamnagar, was just the highest: Finance Ministry, PM (narasimha rao). Logistics were also simpler - Reliance already had a base in Gujarat and west india .. (Infocomm was executed in unchartered territory).

Then, Jamnagar was a far lower risk .... Infocomm faces major uncertainty because of regulation and validity of WLL services.

Jamnagar was far smoother ride: No competition .. ready offtake of product by IOC etc.

The biggest stress on Infocomm came around end of June '03 -- Reliance had ordered around 4 million handsets from LG & samsung (costing 2000 crores) .. and they were rotting in inventory. Mobile offtake in June'03 was a paltry 3 lacs or so ... and with clear signs the show would be worse in future. Monsoon 501 did something very good for Infocomm ... I think it saved it. And with prepaid, they had their lessons ... and really the kill began in October '04, with a massive tariff reductions, 440 & 199 cards. Another success followed with Rworld tariffs.

And then disaster stuck .... welcome Anil. The chap is seeming to spoil the party.

[deepu 0]

It's pouring money for cellular firms

---------------------------------------------

For the mobile operators in Maharashtra, the monsoon mayhem was a blessing in disguise. The state, which is divided into two telecom circles -- Mumbai and Rest of Maharashtra -- registered a spurt in outgoing calls and SMSs, as cell phones was the easiest -- and sometimes the only -- mode of communication available.

The increase in usage was as high as 50 per cent for certain companies on certain days of the rain-hit week -- that is from July 25 to July 31. Except for Reliance Infocomm, all other operators registered rise in outgoing calls and SMSs.

Tata Teleservices Ltd registered a 50 per cent increase in outgoing calls on July 26, the worst rain-hit day of the past week. The CDMA-based cellular service provider had clocked around 13.8 million calls on that day in Mumbai, compared with 9.5 million calls it normally registers on a daily basis.

For RoM, it was around 8.5 million calls, up by 21.43 per cent, from 7 million calls that were being registered on a daily basis, according to TTSL managing director Charles Antony.

TTSL also recorded a 50 per cent increase in SMSes during the week, with its subscribers sending around 1.65 million messages, compared to a daily average of 1.1 million SMSes. The increase in usage was not steady during the week, as it fluctuated on certain days, he said.

Mobile operator Airtel recorded 51 per cent rise in outgoing calls on July 28. The service provider had made all outgoing calls free for 24 hours from July 27 (Wednesday) 6 pm, which resulted it in clocking the maximum number of outgoing calls on July 28, Thursday.

The operator had posted a rise in outgoing calls during the rain-hit week, even though figures were not immediately available.

Industry observers believe that the rise in company's outgoing calls from its network ranged between 20 per cent and 30 per cent.

Orange also posted an increase in outgoing calls, even though the figures were yet to be collated. The increase was also reflected in SMSs, according to Orange chief operating officer Harit Nagpal.

"There was an increase in both voice and data usage, but we won't be able to quantify at this point of time. The rise was natural, as people were anxious to find out about their near and dear ones," he added.

However, Reliance Infocomm Ltd did not register any rise in calls between the company's handsets (Reliance to Reliance). On the contrary, it registered a slight dip in calls from its network to other networks.

An RIC spokesperson said that the company's network was sturdy and functional during the week, while the dip in calls were due to network failure at the receiving end. "What was important for us was to maintain our network, rather than enhancing usage at a time of crisis," he said.

Courtesy - in.rediff.com

[Puneet 0]

You are 8 hours 18 minutes too late deepu. Arun posted the same news item at 3:28 AM in the same thread a few posts above http://www.rimweb.com/forums/index.php?sho...indpost&p=37074

Maybe reading the forums before posting is a good practise.