Indian Urbanism
@IndianUrbanist
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Progressive Urbanism thoughts related to India || Slums || Transit || Cycling || Pedestrians || Housing Shortage || Rental Discrimination || Climate Change ||
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In this thread, we aim to delve into the often-neglected relationship between cars and drainage, a topic with substantial policy implications. Below, we share a few thoughts on this matter:
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White academics in general are completely unaware that the Delhi Metro pricing of like Rs 80 to Rs 120 is completely unaffordable for most women in Delhi. The reason most find it better than NYC or Tube is because Delhi Metro’s pricing filters out the poor undesirables.
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Caste discrimination in housing is very real. The most common examples of this any house hunting group. Specially with Brahmin landlords openly asking Brahmin tenants. The slightly less brazen way is asking for “vegetarian tenants”.
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Traffic in Indian cities is not due to the country being overpopulated. Rather, it’s because car owners in India are prioritized in every aspect of planning, even though only the elite have the income to afford cars.
visitors to India being shocked at the traffic is like the weirdest thing, you went to a country with over a billion people, did you think we teleport everywhere
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India's elite are extremely insecure about how India is perceived by the world. This insecurity manifests itself in various forms, from the Olympics and space discourse to NYT articles and perceptions of “modernized infrastructure”. Tough being rich in a poor country.
‘Not even allowed to go to our terraces, so G20 leaders don’t see us’ say the poor whose houses are covered by green sheets for G20.
‘Shouldn’t G20 know India’s reality?’ They ask, adding they’re beaten up if they step out of these sheets, which cover the houses of thousands.
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Most Indian “rags-to-riches” stories overlook caste privileges, acting as if securing a government job in the 1960s and having grandparents with a master’s degree in a state where the literacy rate was only 10% didn’t confer elite status.
Father was born in the prominent, so-called 'elite' Marathi Dashashta Brahmin family and was a CJI as well and was a high court judge in 1961, 2 years after the birth of DY Chandrachud. Mother was in AIR. A High Court judge gets a battery of servants. But sure man...
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An ideal Bangalore migrant is someone who spends 2-3 hours in their car daily while commuting to work. The one whose idea of primary idea of recreation or third place is just a shopping mall. No Indian city has in the last 20 years has done as much to murder “fun”.
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Rs 6000-12000 to a professional cleaning service is all this takes to get this cleaned up. Bangalore landlords take a deposit of close to 10-15 months of rent. Unlike other cities, landlords find various methods of not returning the deposit as well. They can spend that.
This is why people don’t like renting to bachelors.
An “educated” bachelor working in a “large MNC” did this in Bangalore.
Got these pics from Reddit.
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The casteism and Islamphobia in cities is very often combined with xenophobic sentiments. Bengali Muslims, Malayali nurses,Bihari vendors,etc are common examples of this. Its extremely unsettling to see progressives treat xenophobia as some lesser or acceptable prejudice.
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Indians irrespective of how progressive or radical politics they show on twitter. Subconsciously and consciously enjoy the privileges of segregation in public space. Even if they can’t say it out loud they would ideally want to maintain that segregation.
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This image is the best metaphor for Gurgaon.
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Bihari families in Mumbai for decades have had their homes and livelihood snatched at just an instant. They are evicted from their homes as part of some politcs. This has happened for decades. People from Bihar face discrimination in nearly every state or city.
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It’s also not the “subsidies” or the “freebies” that are their concern. Delhi Metro requires way more “subsidy” than free bus travel for women, despite being an unviable option for 90% of the city it serves. We rarely hear Metro commuters being called freeloaders.
The triumph of public transport is when it is fully utilised across all strata of society, and accessible to those at the margins. But who will explain this to people who villainise subsidies and think public transport isn't a civic right?
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Migrant workers are often viewed as symbolic vehicles for Hindi imposition. But in cities no one learns the work language faster than migrant workers. For instance a lot of migrant workers in Delhi working around specific areas quickly pick up Bengali because it’s tied to work.
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“Whereas hard working average Mumbaikars struggles to pay school fees of IB schools.” Is an incredible sentence
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Bangalore at the end of the day is a city which offers little to even wealthy migrants beyond microbrewery and malls. Where Bangalore is good at it is creating and having number of high paying jobs. But in terms of recreation and engagement the city very clearly fails.
Bangalore- A city people land up in to work in tech and/or startups and live in a 8 km radius and do cringe shit like this and then jokers from other cities get a chance to post shit like this.
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Professor Geetam Tiwari made an interesting point regarding the minimum household income required for one member to use the Metro for daily work commutes, which is Rs 36,000 per month. Really recommend watching the entire discussion.
Future of Urban Transportation in India
How many cars can the cities sustain?
Professor Geetam Tiwari from IIT Delhi and I discuss on this pressing reality of urban mess.
#urbanmobility
#cities
#cars
#town
#IITDelhi
#transport
#climatechange
#COP28UAE
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The lesson from anti-Marathi discrimination in Gujarati-dominated complexes is that discriminating against someone based on their ethnicity is wrong. Instead, it has become ‘how dare someone to whom Mumbai doesn’t belong, discriminate against someone to whom Mumbai does belong.’
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Small thread on how I believe caste affects urbanization and urban planning in India -
India specifically the elite class, the govt, the bureaucracy, and the judiciary often deprive themselves and Indians of a better public space because of caste.
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Nearly everyone considers potholes and wide roads as barometers for 'infrastructure.' A more accurate representative barometer is drainage. Investment and maintenance in drainage highlight whether 'infrastructure' is merely aesthetic or an actual investment.
Safe to say that the takes of anyone who praises the infrastructure of Gurgaon can be ignored, regardless if they're sports takes or transit takes Gurgaon is a model of how NOT to build a city. You've got a terrible stockholm syndrome if you're trying to hype it
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Wish most privileged Indians who aren’t billionaires (“middle class”) understood how low wages are of workers in the same city they live. This would make a lot of the discourse more grounded in reality and the debates well informed.
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@ChadNotChud
It’s even worse, people like the taste of meat and instead of just coming out and admitting it, go on a insincere rant about how it will hurt the marginalized.
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Whereas in London and NYC aside there are a lot of people which the usual elite subconsciously consider undesirable. This view isn’t very different from a lot of Indian academics, who don’t see the affordability issue.
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Don’t want to quote Magali Vaz’s tweet but parks across Indian cities aren’t shut down or converted because of drug addicts or homeless population. The most common reason is kids from low income group playing in the park and workers resting at noon. Both annoy NIMBY residents.
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In every city with a metro system, 70%-80% of all trips are less than 10 km. Metros start to save time on a door-to-door basis for trips longer than 12-15 km. This is the primary reason why metro systems will have low ridership.
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These are extremely ignorant and some just contradict the very point it's intended to make. The Indian car market is under-penetrated because most Indians can't afford cars despite car-centric infrastructure owning a personal car is inconvenient in the biggest cities.
@dhruv_rathee
1. India is severely under-penetrated as a car market. 30 cars for 1000 population. China has 221 per 1000.
2. 1.36 million jobs. This is still under penetrated compared to EU which employs ~2.5 million.
3. Car is a social capital. Signifies upward mobility in India. Only…
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The first picture depicts the state’s fiscal irresponsibility and exclusionary practices. The second picture shows how marginalized dwellers, despite no resources, managing to outperform the powerful and well-resourced state in building their own housing and infrastructure.
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Gurgaon is less a libertarian ‘success’ and more a broker/intermediary ‘success.’ The ‘success’ of Gurgaon doesn’t stem so much from the lack of government interference, but rather from private players’ ability to secure government intervention only where they deem it beneficial.
Gurgaon is the closest thing to libertarianism in India and it's a roaring success. The only thing bad about Gurgaon is its public spaces ie the non-libertarian parts.
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Every few days, a genre of tweet emerges that combines the swanky aesthetics of Bangalore or Gurgaon with cheap labor for domestic chores and services provided by VC-bankrolled startups, arguing these factors contribute to a better quality of life than in NYC or London.
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Many people mistakenly believe that investing in transit is viable and complementary, even when cities look like this. However, poor land use is unforgiving in multiple ways, and the first step towards great transit will always be to restrict cars.
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Every Facebook housing group would have one person objecting to the casteist requirements and 25 other’s responses justifying the casteist requirement. But it’s a creating an exclusionary situation based on caste.
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This is an example of islamophobia in Pune on Reddit. This is what India casually does to its Muslims and has been doing for years (long before 2014). This could be any Indian city, including cities which have never had BJP presence like Chennai or Kolkata.
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Bizarre argument that keeps getting repeated. Going from low ridership to high ridership is important not because public transit needs to be profitable, but because transit shouldn’t be inaccessible and exclusionary.
why would i care about metro ridership, public transport doesn't need to be profitable
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There are legitimate reasons to oppose Hindi imposition at the expense of local languages, but actions and groups like this should also be understood as individuals who are unhappy about their city becoming more multicultural and diverse.
English signboards destroyed on Lavelle Road. Where are the cops!!
At least 20 shops!!
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It’s pretty cruel and vile how globe twitter and Modi apologists like Noah just consider Indian Muslims to be dispensable for the perception of development. People all over the world can susceptible to PR effort by BJP, not everyone needs to be as insincere.
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Indian Americans do exhibit implicit and explicit caste bias, also use tactics like Hinduphobia to oppose anti-caste laws. Endogamy, stigma against LCs, casteist practices aren’t uncommon. Even progressives/liberals can be casteist. Assuming caste belief isn't always racist.
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Creating a public transit system that excludes the lowest-income and marginalized groups should clearly indicate a lack of policy competence. It’s so cruel in outcomes. Incompetence and cruelty in India is doubled down and lionized on aesthetics. The answer often is this obvious.
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Despite daily ridership below 40k, the Bandra Worli Sealink cost over Rs 1600 crores. Similarly, the Coastal Road project estimates Rs 13000 crores with a projected ridership of 60k per day. The ridership figures are exceptionally low when you're planning mobility.
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If you own and drive a car in an Indian city. You really don’t want to use phrases like “Who will pay for it?” “Freebie culture” “hardworking tax paying citizen”
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One of the hilarious things that keeps happening on this website is, Modi apologist and supporters from outside India have tried to spin india not releasing data into some kind of a positive.
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Whenever a viral video emerges showing Mumbai’s crowded local trains, people often assert that life is better in [insert city]. Yet, it’s crucial to consider how other cities accommodate residents with similar income levels.
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These are the people that run that really run every city. This is what “community input” ends up being in India. The reason homeowners can feel powerful as a group is because they know judiciary will side in nearly every case no matter what.
Us vs them in a south delhi colony- "around 2000 children will be roaming around" is seen as a security threat by residents
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This perspective is cruel and bigoted, stemming from elitist ignorance. People should avoid fitting the cartoonish villain stereotype that the BJP often portrays. Generally, if your election analysis consistently blames the voters, it’s an alarmingly flawed approach.
I know correlation isn't causality, but the states that have lower literacy, lower female literacy, lower female labourforce participation, higher use of Hindi, higher population, higher fertility, and lower tolerance of meat-eating, seem to prefer voting for BJP.
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These pictures offer a glimpse into more representative and interesting aspects of India, especially for those unfamiliar with the country. It's important for Indians to find better ways to cope with their inferiority complex and perceived insecurities.
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Expressing “unpopular opinions” about any ethnicity will leadsto the promotion of vile xenophobia and enables some progressives to embrace their own form of racism. The attack and harassment of migrant workers stem from this very sentiment.
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Cars are the most unsafe mode of travel. Cars are literally causing variety of environmental harm. Mass transit is literally what’s viable in cities with high population. Across cities from Singapore to Paris to Tokyo when people have non-car options they take it.
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Even though Muslims in India are targeted by extra judicial methods. It’s also a topic really hard for Muslims to discuss in general because not only BJP supporters but even the anti-BJP accounts would attempt to brand Muslims as sympathizers and “islamists”.
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The usual anecdotal examples of this SC tenant from UP or OBC tenant from Gujarat being able to find accommodation in “vegetarian” tenant locations. But that just evidence that a casteist landlord doesn’t understand all the complexities and nuances of caste all over the country.
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In India, no matter how privileged a Muslim might be, they are seen first as Muslims when trying to rent a home. This widespread discrimination remains consistent regardless of the government in power at the centre or state. Biggest housing policy issue plaguing India.
Actresses Falaq Naaz and Urfi Javed are talking about how they were denied houses citing their Muslim identity.They say that it's only them but it happened with many Muslims. A landlord mistook Urfi's name as 'Urvasi', gave her house. Later, she was not allowed to shift.
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It's hard to fathom that we might experience something even worse than this in Mumbai.
Alexandria, Egypt has become the latest city to solve traffic. Check out their brand new 10 lane highway on the beachfront.
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This is what Delhi Metro (general Metro) discourse boils down to. At the end of the day, a lot of people who are very fluent social justice jargon and considered “woke”, wouldn’t want to share space domestic workers or migrant workers. Metro delivers really well in that area.
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@JoePostingg
China derangement turning into engagement turning into appreciation from Hindutva. Plus Modi govt has done a lot PR work to be appreciated by guys like Noah and other overseas commentators with similar bend. They have been pretty successful.
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Anyone who attributes poor Metro ridership solely to the network’s length inevitably becomes akin to a snake oil salesman. No Indian city can gain ridership without addressing land use and urban geometry, let alone without restricting car usage.
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Assuming this case is genuine and not staged, the simplest policy to boost the earnings of this auto driver would be implementing parking restrictions throughout Bangalore. This would result in increased trips, reduced congestion, and higher earnings almost instantly.
A Bengaluru auto driver in tears after collecting just Rs 40/- from 8 am to 1 pm. This is the result of free bus rides given by the new Cong govt in
#Karnataka
.
Pushing people into poverty!!
#freebies
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It's puzzling how Indians can dispute something so basic. The shift from an one of the most patriarchal society to one of the least patriarchal significantly enhances a woman's experiences and quality of life.
she’s right and she should say it. Echoes my own experience. Being able to go outside and do simple things like run and hike, without men constantly harassing and ogling you is life-changing. Yes the fear is still there but 10x less than what it was like in India.
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Also, reactionary casteist landlords dont rent homes to various categories of people, because the housing shortage allows landlords and homeowners, in general, to be coercive. Their discrimination is enabled by bad housing policy, not by the "quality" of tenants.
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If anyone claims on this website that X Indian city is unwelcoming towards migrants while Y city is accommodating, they are highly likely to be accurate about X and deeply mistaken about Y.
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This is another issue with people whose political understanding of India comes from niche American bloggers. Cities in India and specially the college educated crowd isn’t more “liberal”. Simple glance at their voting patterns or housing preferences would show that.
@RishiJoeSanu
Yep. Cities are simply more liberal. This gen of rurals in cities will be problematic but the next are likely to be true blue liberals
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Multiculturalism isn’t killing languages like Kannada and Punjabi. It’s Hindi imposition. Important distinction. Contrary to popular perception migrant workers learn local languages at a surprisingly fast rate. White collar IT workers aren’t the typical migrant.
Agree to disagree. Our languages are being killed in the name of multiculturalism. I can’t comply with the notion of toxic nationalism to tell you, ‘all good’.
If one has to settle in Punjab they SHOULd learn Punjabi. If one has to settle in Bangalore, they SHOULD learn Kannada.
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Bangalore is slowly becoming like London in the sense that you see a very specific genre of tweet, and based on that tweet, it's very easy to guess the location.
For a city that claims to be home to so many people who are obsessed with and seemingly good at making money, I find people from there to be really bad at knowing how to spend money wisely.
They live in shitty, small houses and travel like this ? It’s so hard to understand.
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If you own a car in India for your own private use. You’re rich by Indian standards. You should be taxed more. You’re definitely not middle class or poor.
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What is often overlooked about Indian cities is that the majority of their reactionary, conservative, and now fascist elements are native to these cities. It's not a situation where a progressive city becomes regressive due to the influx of migrants from rural or smaller towns.
Growing up in Gurgaon, I encountered the most regressive attitudes in neighbourhoods and schools here. Later in college I made friends from smaller cities and towns, and found that often their schooling experience had been 10x more progressive and open-minded than mine.
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Most people who aren't billionaires identify as "middle class" rather than "rich." As a consequence, what should be typically considered middle-class visual is often mislabeled as "poverty porn," especially when it comes to depictions of certain slums.
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Public transit must be improved in Bangalore. But it’s also worth noting that public transit “improvement” will have a limited effect in Bangalore traffic, because the problem of Bangalore congestion is a problem of the city having too many cars on the road.
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The route to eternal anti-fascism doesn’t have to go through vile xenophobia. As bad as the tweet is, the agreement and amplification by people who are held in high regard because of their progressive and radical views, is very disappointing.
Dear
@ptrmadurai
It is a serious Alert about north indian migration to TN.
Pls take proper survey,data collection about their work, location, how long they are staying here to avoid unnecessary issues raised in future against homeland people.
Today chennai central scenario.😔😔
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At some point one has to admit this is just what Bangalore really is and this is just what Bangalore was intends to be for migrants. The moment you have to scold the wealthiest migrants “Leave area X to see the real Bangalore” is the moment the city really is the area X.
This peak Bengaluru nonsense reminds me, I met a north Indian techie who had been living in Bengaluru for 2 years, & had never heard of Majestic, Malleshwaram, Shivaji Nagar & other such Bengaluru areas.
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The problem with prioritizing and evaluating airports based on lavish aesthetics rather than on design, functionality, turnaround time, wayfinding, etc., is that you end up with an abundance of the former and a negligible amount of the latter.
I have travelled to Europe a few times recently. In my view the Indian Airports are far bigger and better, our road network is far more widespread with quality roads, our airlines deliver far better and more efficient service at lower price points and now Indian trains (Vande…
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The idea of ‘nature fighting back’ every time there is a flood is not only sadistic but also ignorant. What’s happening in Chennai was entirely preventable. The consequences of a neglected drainage system should not be misdiagnosed as nature fighting back.
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“Migrants caused fascism” is an extremely unserious way to look at the politics of the city. Because migrants don’t have political rights within the city. Elite migrants with registered documentation are really small in number and are less likely to participate in the process.
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The “quality of life” in India is largely defined by the ability to underpay domestic workers in comparison to developed countries, coupled with the prevalence of VC-funded startups that are unlikely to ever achieve profitability but persist due to past low interest rates.
I keep seeing this guy on the TL. It's like he's making a concerted effort to put out stupid thoughts so that he can win some stupidity Olympics while competing against other tech bro idiots.....
Of course the quality of life for this savarna is better in India... Hypocrites
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European and North American countries are the least patriarchal in the world by every indicator and much richer than India. Free transit isn’t going to make a difference in the lives of people in Berlin or Seattle. It would make a difference in the lives of women in Bangalore.
@RitayanGhosh1
I have traveled in Europe/Asia a bit and lived long in US. Have not experienced any free public transport. They are actually quite expensive (compared to India).
And at best they would offer income based subsidies. Gender discrimination is unthinkable.
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@banksehu_bc
It empowers prejudice and discrimination. It’s based conditioning followed a lot of ignorance. Then it causes housing shortage and segregation.
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The same is true for Bangalore where workers have been successful in not only learning Kannada but also picked up Tamil if their work required it. Someone who has driven autos/cabs in more than 2 big cities can reasonably communicate in 5-6 languages.
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One of the least surprising aspects of the Indian right-wing is that they can't comprehend that the lack of compactness and spacing is due to cars and parking lots. Instead, their starting point is to assume that problems caused by cars have to be a given.
Yes, after living in the city for three decades, between 1991 and 2022, I need a lesson from you on what has changed. Do tell me how many cars and two-wheelers you saw each day around StuC or how many chose to walk from their PGs in Sector 15 to PU.
No one is talking about…
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Tokyo flourishes with lively commercial spaces that have narrower streets than many Indian cities, primarily by restricting vehicular access.
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This is a fair point. To upper middle class and rich women Metro provides safer mode.A lot of students talk about how their parents wouldn’t let them go out at night/to study if it wasn’t for Metro. Irrespective of it’s actually safety record, perception of safety is also vital.
metro privilege arguments routinely disregarding women’s need for a safe mode of public transport. usually made by men ofc.
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Homeless sleeping on the street in the city with most expensive housing. Natural conclusion would be they must be pedophile who have substance abuse problem.
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Rich people don’t care if their city’s infrastructure is pedestrianized and often oppose pedestrianization efforts across the city. However, they do have a preference for and desire walkable spaces for themselves, which planners and bureaucrats cater to.
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The second picture is absolutely incredible. Gangtok’s Mall Road is a design is something that a lot of growing cities and commercial centres should try to replicate.
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Especially for people who have lived in cities with high-ridership transit and walkable infrastructure, the idea that a country of a billion people, despite its poverty, invests in its cities as poorly as India does can seem strange.
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From start, Sreedharan and the surrounding bureaucrats and senior politicians were against incorporating welfare policies into the Metro. They also wanted to avoid having Metro passengers share the ride with undesirables. Even with low aggregate ridership that’s been a success.
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The high construction and low ridership model of the Delhi Metro is expected to be replicated extensively across India. Based on what has occurred in other cities, it is likely that bus services and suburban rail will further decline in quality and efficiency.
Chennai Metro's 118 km phase 2 cost 64000 cr.
Hyderabad adding around 340kms of network at 69000 cr?
Are we even talking about the same thing?
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The prevalence of tweets suggesting that Mumbai is safe while Gurgaon is not kind of highlights the role vendors play in creating a perception of safety, as opposed to the limited effectiveness of building that perception through gated communities, malls, and microbreweries.
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The idea with public transit is literally to bring the demand up. That’s what constitutes success. Low ridership even with user satisfaction is sign of bad transit. High ridership with low user satisfaction is a sign of bad transit policy. India has examples of both.
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This is a very important point. There is heavy demand for housing in every city in India. There is a shortage as high as anywhere in the world. A demand that private sector nor the govt has been able to fulfill.
Every time the state does this, it actively pushes people into poverty. People who had managed to figure out how to break from the cycle *despite* the state.
It has no benefits, and it's evil. The state makes a trade-off between good and bad and simply chooses bad.
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Each time a road is widened, a flyover constructed, or significant space allocated for parking, we're sacrificing the opportunity to build homes, parks, shops, offices, or schools in areas where they are in high demand and real need.
Road widening not only disrupts a city's compact layout but also inflates costs for drainage, sewage, & utilities like electricity/cables. Additionally, it overlooks how cars require a substantial amount of valuable land to be allocated for parking, essentially wasting it.
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In India, car-centric infrastructure is often viewed as standard, and overlooking this can result in serious drawbacks. Parking is just the biggest case in point.
HT Interview: ‘India will benefit most from parking reforms’, says Professor Donald Shoup
via
@shivaniwrites
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One of the reasons Indian cities are never going to tax cars or raise money out of car owners because India isn’t going to be democratic ever to do it. Same reason transit prices aren’t going to go down to meet with accessibility.
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Nearly every right wing “wonks” in India just completely in denial about induced demand. Even more than that they refuse to accept how compactness and agglomeration work. This just makes any transit or infrastructure discussion with them unproductive despite their influence.
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The levels at which Mumbai as a city has gone towards hurting migrants from Bihar is way above other cities. Even the most progressive nativist sentiment from Mumbai against Bihari’s can’t and shouldn’t be separated from that history.
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If you interact with bureaucrats across India you would find overwhelming majority haven’t heard of the concept of Induced demand. The remaining who have heard it in passing give you anecdotal short term examples against it. They also flat out deny its existence as academic BS.
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Vegetarians in India are made fun of liking veg Biryani. But being a meat eater in India puts you significant disadvantage. You can’t rent houses as easily as vegetarians for what it signifies in terms of caste.
personally have lost count of number of times i have been ridiculed for not eating meat.
i mean cmon it’s just food - eat what you want and move on.
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A Delhi that’s uninhabitable due to its air quality is more likely than a Delhi that drastically restricts cars to deal with its air quality.
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Have nothing but contempt for certain NGOs and “Citizen activists” who use their powerful connections to evict street vendors,increase demolition,harass auto drivers and file a variety of PILs. This is why “community input” will never be anything but reactionary NIMBYism.
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The belief that car owners pay enough taxes to cover the costs of roads and related infrastructure, with amounts ranging from high 12-figure to low 13-figure sums, is laughably false. This becomes even more apparent when measuring ridership for individual projects.
So if you are a car owner, and want to use this fantastic bridge daily, for a year, you can get a pass made for only Rs. 1.5 lakh. For a truck, it's just Rs.5 lakhs. Naturally, this is after you have paid extortionate rates of tax while buying your car, and income tax, and…
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The expansion and evaluation of metro systems in Indian cities do not primarily rely on ridership metrics or political appraisal. Their most significant value lies in the perception of modernization and the overall feeling they create. Where they are successful
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Bus commuting women are from socio-economic backgrounds where they are inherently seen as "freeloaders" irrespective of the state of welfare.
The subsidies aimed at enhancing the mobility of economically disadvantaged women have ++++++
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These are the kind of roads we should also be building more of. They increase connectivity immensely. They are much cheaper to build and maintain than alternatives. Additionally, a robust drainage and other utilities system can be more easily implemented around them.
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Even if patriarchy was thing of past for a native mumbaikars and it was an exclusive problem of Bihari men, it still wouldn’t justify vitriolic xenophobia that’s been all over the TL. It’s not only ignorant but extremely hateful, despite the progressive spin.
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Security theatre and fare gates unquestionably increase travel times and act as a deterrent for commuters. Prioritizing optics over mobility like Delhi Metro, is going to be bad for commuters.
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