the public utility and infrastructure sytems in mumbai are definitely curious.
one of the most eye-opening situations ive had here, as a concerned citizen, is that the reason there are so few public dust bins is that they are typicaly stolen and re-sold on the grey market. same with light posts, and manhole covers. according to the times of india, more than 1500 manhole covers have been lifted from the streets and each would sell for about 5500 rs, about 130 usd. its scary enough that the manhole covers are officially opened during times of flooding (with no warning, no marker, walk at your own risk) but the city would obviously intend to put them back. stealing them is another matter. its pretty scary to walk down a street in knee deep water not knowing if there is road to step on.
so it was sort of alarming to read this about philadelphia. it seems that no place is really immune to the opportunities of the high price of metal these days. fingers are pointing at china, but after the olympic building rush, will this behavior even stop? it seems like a pretty good racket. if there were any left on my street...
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