Organised on Saturday, the seminar saw arguments fly thick and fast against the flyovers: that they boosted cars over public transport, violated town planning norms and had been hastily approved without any prior study.

``Motor cars which are an insignificant minority are being given priority over buses,'' said Manmohan Singh, MMRDA Metropolitan Commissioner. While just three to four lakh passengers used cars every day, buses carried 45 lakh passengers, said Singh, indirectly calling the flyover scheme an example of `truncated planning'. The government had to decide on what mode of transport had to be given priority, he said.

AV Ghangurde, chief of the MMRDA's transportation division, added that except for a few flyovers, the rest were unjustified. ``It will only benefit north-south movement of traffic,'' he said, adding thatMMRDA's plans had shown that the city's east-west traffic was rising and needed more attention. Flyovers wouldn't be needed, Ghangurde said, had the state government improved the level of service on the western and eastern express highways and service roads, removed encroachments and ensured that not too many roads joined them midway.

The bait had evidently been provided by PL Bongirwar, joint managing director of the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation when he said the flyovers had been built to retain the character of the two expressways and enable motorists to reach the expressways at the outskirts of the city.

The flyovers were part of the government's corridor approach. ``If we take similar or more time to reach the expressway (than the entire expressway journey), it makes no sense,'' Bongirwar said. ``In that case, the flyovers should have formed part of the environmental clearance for the expressway project,'' countered Debi Goenka of the Bombay Environmental Action Group. According toGoenka, no document or techno-economic feasibility report had been prepared to justify the 55 flyovers.

``The flyover scheme is an example of totally misplaced priorities, when you have other more important claimants like water supply and sewerage. Given the choice between these two and moving faster in traffic, what would you prefer?'' quizzed Shirish Patel, Chairperson and MD, SPA consultants.

Flyovers were being built since they were highly visible achievements. Besides, they could be rapidly begun and finished and were the quickest way of spending money fast. Public transport would not be able to use these flyovers which often spanned two and three junctions. Even the WS Atkins report, the basis for the MUTP, had said 85 per cent of peak hour journeys would be by public transport. While it recommended spending only 1 per cent of its funds or Rs 45 crore on flyovers, it spent 69 per cent of the funds on improving the railways. ``Why has this 45 crore suddenly become Rs 1,500 crore?'' asked Patel.``The motor car is a monster, the more you cater to its appetite, the more its appetite grows,'' Patel said.

Govt to hike toll rates
The state government will hike toll fees at five entry points into the city from May 2, P L Bongirwar said. The rates include Rs 20 for cars and buses, Rs 25 for light commercial vehicles (LCVs), Rs 50 for buses, Rs 50 for trucks and Rs 100 for trailers. The rates will be collected at Mulund, Vashi, Airoli and Dahisar. The tolls are proposed to be collected for 20 years and are to finance a part of the government's Rs 1,500 crore flyover scheme. Toll collection will be manual at first and will be computerised after three months.