00:00of a rapid transformation racing towards faster commutes and urban renewal under a multi-pillion
00:06dollar infrastructure blitz. Bloomberg's Monica Doshi reports from Mumbai. There's something
00:14different about Mumbai nowadays. It looks a little bit more modern. A sleek new underground
00:21metro line now slices through India's financial capital, turning an hours-long commute into
00:27minutes. A coastal road soon to be flanked by gardens and public spaces, and India's longest
00:33sea bridge have halved travel time across the city. And a brand new suburban airport, inaugurated
00:40this week by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is set to open in December, ready to welcome
00:4520 million passengers a year. Navi Mumbai International Airport is a project that shows a glimpse of
00:55a developed India. There's more. Another dozen metro lines, east-west tunnels and coastal
01:00road extensions are on the way. Together, this transformation carries a price tag of between
01:0620 to 30 billion dollars. It's unfolding alongside a massive push to redevelop slums and aging buildings.
01:14For Mumbai's 22 million residents, it's a promise. More homes, faster commutes and a safer journey to
01:23work in a city where overcrowding can be deadly. India's financial capital draws millions in the
01:30search of opportunity. Now, these new projects won't erase the slums, the traffic, the overcrowdedness
01:37overnight. But they will offer a moment of calm in a city that never stops.
01:45And of course, Manika joins us now for more on Mumbai's infrastructure push. Manika, I mean,
01:50we can't downplay the importance of infrastructure in India's push for, you know, economic goals.
01:57Most times, though, it is playing catch up, isn't it? I mean, India's growing
02:01at such a pace that infrastructure just lags behind. Well, that's right, Hass. It isn't just
02:08such a pace. It's also because for several years, India's large metropolises ignored the expansion,
02:16the migration that was taking place within their cities, on their peripheries and did not do adequate
02:23planning. So I know you're very amused sitting in Singapore that here we are in 2025 in Mumbai,
02:29celebrating the onset of a metro rail as if it's almost a novelty. But that's the reality right
02:36now in Mumbai. The country's commercial capital for decades has been starved of infrastructure.
02:42And now we're seeing a blitz, which I think now adds up to roughly 34 billion dollars of spending
02:49on bridges, roads, tunnels. Of course, this is an island city. So a lot of this is now going
02:55underground to free up space on the top. And hopefully, like I've said, you know, in that
03:00short video you saw, that will ease commutes, most importantly, make this a more productive city.
03:07We know that requires big funding, right? I mean, some of the numbers I see out there,
03:122.4 trillion dollars needed by India by 2050. I'm just wondering how this is all squaring up,
03:19given that, you know, their concerns about deficits and debt. I mean, are there plans to
03:24get the private sector, for instance, involved in funding these projects?
03:31Well, the public sector is already very involved, Haas. If you take a look at the federal budget for
03:36the last three years post the pandemic, the government's form of a stimulus was by allocating
03:41a lot more money towards infrastructure. This year it was about 11 trillion rupees,
03:46which in dollars doesn't seem like a very significant amount. But look, that's what our
03:50budget is, right? It's 130 or 140 billion dollars. So the central government has been spending
03:56significantly on national highways, ports, airports. The state governments have also been putting money
04:05towards infrastructure, not as much as they should, as economists will tell you, because many states to
04:10win elections, their political parties have, you know, preferred on cash handouts. But in this metro
04:16project, for instance, Japanese investors are involved. The ADB is involved. The state government
04:23is helping fund it. The city is picking up some of the tab and the central government is also picking
04:28up some of the tab for some of this infrastructure in Mumbai. So there is a push. Of course, money is never
04:33enough. Like you said, money is never enough. And of course, when you talk about India, you have to
04:40make comparisons with China. And when it comes to China, I think they're spending about 14 percent of
04:46GDP on infrastructure. That was what happened back in 2016. And when it comes to, you know,
04:53the plan to expand infrastructure, it's led to those ghost cities. So is there a sense,
04:59is there concern that this might also happen in India? Well, there are corners of such concern.
05:06I think you would have read an excellent story. One of my colleagues, me, you did on, you know,
05:11airports and how I think from about 140 airports, there are close to a dozen that have been built.
05:18And, you know, these are old airport sites that existed either for the armed forces or the government
05:23that were refurbished and built to expand connectivity in many regional centers in India.
05:30And like I said, about 12 of those 140 hardly or barely see a flight a day or a flight in even a week
05:37or a month. So there are some instances of waste, of vanity projects. And I think that brings us back
05:44to two core issues that lie at the center of Mumbai's concerns, Bangalore's concerns, where there is a war
05:51underway right now against potholes or Gurgaon's concerns, where we saw significant flooding in
05:57the monsoon recently. And that goes down to planning and accountability. And I just want to leave you
06:03with one thought. I think about 60% of India now lives in urbanized areas. And, you know, that's where
06:10a bunch of our growth comes from. And if we don't get all of this right in terms of infrastructure,
06:15planning and accountability, it will be a headwind to India's growth.
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