Lok Sabha elections 2024: Traffic, slums on Piyush Goyal’s agenda

BJP MP Piyush Goyal proposed drone mapping to identify and address traffic bottlenecks, and a slum-free north Mumbai. Pic/Nimesh Dave

Member of Parliament Piyush Goyal on Saturday said that drone mapping would be used to identify and eliminate bottlenecks that cause traffic issues, as well as a "slum free" Mumbai without displacing slum dwellers. Goyal, who is the Bharatiya Janata Party's candidate from the Mumbai North parliamentary constituency for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, made the statements during a public meeting with constituents at the Raheja Estate in Borivli (East).

"For the last three weeks, since I was declared as the candidate, I have been in discussion about some issues in the constituency. One of the topics under discussion has been about making the commute traffic-free. For a long time, I did not have a solution to this problem but on thinking further, I thought of drone mapping to find out where the bottlenecks are and what is causing them. If successful, this model can be adopted for other states and countries as well," Goyal said. He also stated that he had plans to make north Mumbai "slum-free".

"Everyone present here will understand that we cannot just relocate these people from one place to another. During my childhood, I used to visit the slums in Antop Hill, as my mother was a social worker. I have seen the conditions these people live in first-hand. Never look at any slum dweller in a condescending way. People living there are not living in those conditions by choice. If we start looking at slums with sensitivity rather than in a bad way, half of the battle would be already won," said Goyal.

He went on to laud Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "sensitivity in all his programmes", such as "giving free rations to 80 crore people, free housing to four crore people close to the line of poverty or providing 55 crore individuals with health care, food, housing, education, electricity, roads and water without any discrimination."

"Just imagine how difficult it was for women to use toilets in earlier days. Prime Minister Modi made 11 crore toilets for women so that they can go about their ablutions with dignity rather than going to the fields before sunrise," said Goyal.