Register: JUN/05/2018, Submit: JUN/15/2018, Eligibility: Professionals beyond bachelor’s degree, students enrolled in any bachelors program, Fee: Indian nationals – professionals 25 USD, students 15 USD; foreign nationals – professionals 60 USD, students 35 USD (until MAR/27/2018); Indian nationals – professionals 35 USD, students 25 USD; foreign nationals – professionals 85 USD, students 60 USD (MAR/28 – MAY/01/2018); Indian nationals – professionals 60 USD, students 40 USD; foreign nationals – professionals 150 USD, students 100 USD (MAY/02 – JUN/05/2018); + taxes; special pricing on institutional participation 5 or more teams, Awards: Winner 2,000 USD, 2 Runner-up (professionals, students) 1,000 USD each, People’s Choice 500 USD, 3 Category Mentions (Network level, Prototype level, Detail level) 300 USD each, 10 Honorary Mentions
Mumbai, India, previously known as Bombay, is the capital city to the Indian state of Maharashtra and stands as the wealthiest city of the country. It is well-known for its diverse culture and is considered a melting pot of several cultures and communities. Overtaking the country capital’s population in 2013, Mumbai currently has around 21 million people residing in it, making it the most populous city in India (2016). It also is the fourth most populous city of the world with a population density of eighty thousand people per square mile.
More than 60% of the people in Mumbai reside in slums. Their dwellings are made up of whatever materials are readily available or can be sourced to them at cheaper prices and sewage pipes of large diameters turn into an aisle between slums where most of land is either utilized by the built, or dumped with garbage. This same city also acts as a home to the highest number of millionaires and billionaires of the country.
It has the highest GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in the South, West and Central Asian regions. Along with a thriving film industri, Mumbai is also a leading financial and industrial ‘Megacity’.
TRANSPORTATION IN THE CITY
The city of Mumbai with a present population of over 21 million generates more than 17 million trips in a day. Although unlike other metropolitan cities, majority of Mumbaikars depend on local trains and buses as their means of egress.
With less than 20% of the commuters opting private cars or taxis, Mumbai might seem a very citizen friendly city, but it’s not! Even this minor portion accounts to millions of vehicles on road, leading to congestion and longer traffic jams. The rail and road network expansion failed to keep pace with the traffic growth resulting in traffic problems.
Mumbai has the most successful local-rail network connection in terms of the number of people it is serving to. The Suburban Railway is an offshoot of the first passenger railway to be built by the British in India, and is also the oldest railway system in Asia. This network has the highest passenger density in the whole world.
- About 80% commuters use public means of egress.
- Local trains cater to about 8 million passengers a day.
- Over 50% of the total rail users of India (in one day) belong to Mumbai.
THE CURRENT SITUATION
The existing system though caters to millions of Mumbaikars on a daily basis in a very cost-efficient and convenient way, the issues attached to it are worth worrying aboutsafety being one of the most prioritized aspects over those related to comfort and cost. With an increasing number of users every year, the trains get overcrowded more and more, leading to higher possibilities of deaths caused by falling off a moving train and stampede on-board and in the stations. A total of around 26000 incidents have been reported on falling-off a moving train of which nearly 27% succumbed to death and many survived but with permanent injuries.
The other key reason behind deaths occuring are of those who were crossing or trespassing near the railway tracks. This tolls to a higher number of deaths compared to people falling off the train. A few even died of an electric shock from the open wires running above the train, when they had to climb on the top in an attempt to travel with no space left inside the train.
THE DESIGN PROBLEM
The challenge here is to propose a new system ‘Hyper Local’ for the commuters, and express the vision of how the city might appear in 2030. It is a new network that caters to existing and upcoming issues of Mumbai – and is not limited to commuting, but more.
Will your design drive more people to use the public modes of transportation? Or will it generate a balance between private and public modes making sure both congestion and over-crowding are taken care of?
While tackling these situations, important factors like the mode of transport, its capacity, frequency, halt points and how they reshape themselves need to be addressed in a precise yet explanatory manner. It might also include the impact on neighboring facilities and how its interdependency with live, work and urban contexts turn out.
The underlying motive is to capture a conceptual picture of how the ‘hyperlocal’ responds to the issues mentioned above and overall Mumbai. The major focus needs to remain on articulation of these in a conceptual manner through text, illustrations, photographs or graphics.
SITE
As a design challenge, the entire rail network of Mumbai connecting the local stations acts as the underlying site.
The difference here is a patch of land that runs through the entire city connected from end to end. An intervention like this can heal, build, enrich the entire city within.
But to set a prototype for addressing common issues and possible outcomes at a practical level, the site selected is the link between stations of Andheri and Vile Parle on the Western Line of Mumbai suburban network. This patch of the land is inclusive of both the stations.
PROTOTYPE
Andheri stands as one of the busiest nodes of the network, geographically located in the middle of Mumbai’s dense urban fabric on the western side. This node handles about 600,000 commuters a day. Vile Parle, in comparison, is a smaller node in terms of area, located between Santacruz and Andheri – two very prominent segments of the city. The given set of stations are designated as a prototype of how the larger outcome will look like on the site. The overall design approach can be top down or bottom up – but their test as a new solution to the issues of Mumbai will be benchmarked here.
Website: commun.xyz