Mumbai Under Construction

In Wisconsin, we had a saying, "there's only two seasons in these parts, winter and road construction." Mumbai has the luxury of having only one season, but alas, this season also happens to be construction season. Perennial construction in Bombay is driven by 3 reasons:

1) Growth of India: 2nd largest country in the world (1.2B people) with the 2nd fastest growing economy (doubling every 9 years) and a rapidly growing means immense appetite for new construction for businesses as well as the rising middle class.

2) Weather of Mumbai: 10 months of weather above 80 degrees means no need for workers to take a break. 12 months of humidity and 2 months of monsoons means buildings become decrepit in less than year, so they have to start renovations before they're even done with the construction. I am serious.

3) The Government: Indian govt is notoriously slow and inefficient (another old adage, "China succeeds because of its government; India succeeds despite its government"). Infrastructure projects always take much longer and cost more than expected.

For example, Mumbai's newest crown jewel, the "Sea Link" that connects the suburbs in a short-cut over sea to South Mumbai was supposed to cost $60M and be completed in 5-years by 2004. It ended up costing $320M and half of it finally opened at the end of 2009. It is a beautiful bridge though (this pic is not necessarily doing it justice):