The stump stays

There's one of those skywalks in place outside Bandra's suburban railway station, on the west. (The one on the east was the city's first). It soars high above the crowds and traffic and takes you straight out to SV Road, where you descend steep stairs into the crowds and traffic there.

While it was being built, a thick concrete column was erected right outside the ticket office. It supported the structure of the skywalk as it was being put together. It was placed in possibly the most congested spot in that entire area, a serious inconvenience for commuters rushing in and out of the ticket office. But since it was for future convenience, commuters put up with it (not that they had much of a choice anyway).

When the skywalk was completed, the builders began destroying this column. I remember going to buy a ticket to Churchgate one afternoon, walking past some workers hacking at it with pickaxes. I remember thinking to myself: "I hope I'm wrong, but I'll bet anything they'll leave a stump of the column there."

Well, I wasn't wrong. If you go to Bandra station now, months since the skywalk was completed, you'll find the stump, perhaps five feet tall. Half destroyed, useful for nothing at all except as a continued inconvenience for commuters rushing in and out of the ticket office.

We build spectacular sealinks. We won't remove rubble. Your tax rupees at work.