This is not Niagara Falls..

We all complain about our roads especially in rainy season they go from bad to worse. We have created new express ways, flyovers, but then the problems like water logging and drainage remains.

We are now weeks away from the beginning of yet another celebration of sportsmanship, the Olympics. Hosted by our dear neighbours, China, the games this year promise to be bigger and better than the previous one.

But hold on, the construction work related to the Olympic stadium is acting as a severe loss for BMC, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.
BMC is in charge of the city's civic maintenance - responsible mainly for the building and maintenance of roads, streets and flyovers, water purification and supply, hospitals, street lighting, maintenance of parks and open spaces, sewage treatment and disposal etc. Every year Mumbai comes to a standstill during the monsoon and all the Mumbaikars blame the BMC for not taking necessary action to combact water logging.

But this year BMC came up with an excuse which struck me the most.They claim that organised gangs are now operating in areas like Kurla, Bandra, Mankhurd, and parts of Byculla to systematically steal the manhole covers. Over 1,500 covers seem to be stolen in the past few months- each costing around Rs 5500 (USD 128) in the grey market.
The demand for iron ore is at its all time high and the grey markets are operating at their best. The Chinese demand is not only resulting in thefts in Mumbai but also in parts of Europe and America.

BMC reports that earlier they used to buy these cover for Rs 3500 (USD 82) but now the prices have touched as the Rs 5500 mark. So as an immediate step to tackle the open threat to all passers who accidently walk or drive into them, the civic authorities are now looking to buy ductile-iron covers, which have a lower scrap value than the current the cast iron covers.

So while China is building up huge infrastructure, its not just leaving a competition for us but also a negative impact on the existing systems in place.