{"id":76044,"date":"2026-01-21T18:05:56","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T09:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development\/2026\/jan\/21\/exclusively-for-the-elite-why-mumbais-new-motorway-is-a-symbol-of-the-divide-between-rich-and-poor"},"modified":"2026-01-21T18:05:56","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T09:05:56","slug":"exclusively-for-the-elite-why-mumbais-new-motorway-is-a-symbol-of-the-divide-between-rich-and-poor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=76044","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Exclusively for the elite\u2019: why Mumbai\u2019s new motorway is a symbol of the divide between rich and poor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With 64% of the city\u2019s residents relying on buses and trains so overloaded that up to 10 passengers die a day, anger is rising over a taxpayer-funded road most will never use<\/p>\n<p>Mumbai is known for its graphic inequality, its gleaming high-rises where the rich live with panoramic views of the Arabian Sea standing next to windowless hovels perched over drains. It is home to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hurun.net\/en-us\/info\/detail?num=2QJ1CKW4OBC4\">90 of India\u2019s billionaires<\/a>, but also to more than six million slum dwellers, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2073-445X\/14\/3\/556\">about 55% of central Mumbai\u2019s population<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Now Mumbai has a new symbol of the gulf between rich and poor: a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.globalhighways.com\/wh10\/feature\/mumbais-new-coastal-transport-link\">high-speed, eight-lane motorway<\/a> on its western coast, which critics say serves only the wealthy despite being built with taxpayers\u2019 money.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development\/2026\/jan\/21\/exclusively-for-the-elite-why-mumbais-new-motorway-is-a-symbol-of-the-divide-between-rich-and-poor\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With 64% of the city\u2019s residents relying on buses and trains so overloaded that up to 10 passengers die a day, anger is rising over a taxpayer-funded road most will never useMumbai is known for its graphic inequality, its gleaming high-rises where the &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5149,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[217,218,3231,59,62,1203,1353,454,334,61,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cities","category-cities-and-development","category-city-transport","category-global-development","category-india","category-inequality","category-inequality-and-development","category-mumbai","category-road-transport","category-south-and-central-asia","category-world-news"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5149"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=76044"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76045,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76044\/revisions\/76045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}