Mumbai, unlike any other city in the world, has many identities. For millions of ordinary citizens of the country, it is the city of their dreams, for businesses it is the country's financial hub, and for millions of homeless it is their home. However, the city that gives cover to a populace of 18 million and more is itself scurrying for cover as its infrastructure crumbles and crumbles fast. The home to Bollywood and the highest tax payers in the country, shockingly, faces the biggest ever challenge of saving itself amidst collapsing infrastructure, deteriorating public transport, lack of space, inadequate shelter space, improper sanitation, sprawling slums, inequality and poor governance. Contrastingly, it is the only Indian contender, with all its indomitable spirit to become a world-class city. What a dichotomy? But the bigger issue is: Can Mumbai's infrastructure woes be fixed?

It is said that films are the mirror of our lives and times. Hence, when lyricist MG Hashmat wrote the now famous song—Yeh Bambai shehar haadson ka shehar hai—from the 1983 flick Haadsa (The Incident)—it vividly captured the condition of India's financial capital at that time. In fact, being the home to Bollywood, Mumbai has always found special attention amongst India's film fraternity. Unfortunately, it is no longer the same city which once used to be the subject of interest and inspiration for them during the 1960s and 1970s. The depiction of Mumbai has changed for worse, for ever on silver screen, and in real life as well. Today's Mumbai is gaining notoriety for every thing considered bad. And we are not talking here about crimes or riots. We mean infrastructure which is the lifeline of the city's ever burgeoning population of 18 million or close to 2 crore. The two consecutive years of flood has further exposed the city's already crumbled infrastructure. Experts now increasingly warn about Mumbai being on the verge of being converted into the city of garbage!

While the falling health of the city may not be on the agenda of the country's political class it has got Mumbaikars shocking and looking for a way out. But the moot point is: Is there a way out to save Mumbai's crumbling infrastructure? Mumbai, the capital city of Maharashtra and India's commercial capital, has the distinction of being the fourth largest urban agglomeration in the world, after Tokyo, Mexico City and New York-Newark, according to a report titled, UN-Habitat State of the World' Cities Report 2006-07. The city has another, rather dubious, distinction of being the host of one of the world's largest slum populations: More than 5 million of the city's residents are slum dwellers. According to the UN Habitat report, more people live in Mumbai's slums than in the entire country of Norway!

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