Congested Connectivity - The Need for Public Transport; By Swati Ramanathan

Congested Connectivity
            by Swati Ramanathan (Co - Founder Janaagraha)

At a recent event, I listened to a group of CEOs complain about the terrible traffic situation and the negative impact it had on their employee attrition rates. One talked about how they were getting their employees bussed to work, using GIS systems to guide the buses through the traffic. Another talked about the impact on productivity. I thought about the three separate traffic-related altercations that I had witnessed earlier in the day – one of them a pretty nasty accident. I also remembered my own reluctance to negotiate an hour of traffic to attend this event.

All residents of India's big cities are feeling the brunt of traffic congestions, road rage and frustrating travel times. No amount of road widening and flyover constructions seems enough. The vehicular increase in India's metros is greater than the population growth and we seem to be following the earlier “car friendly cities” choice of the USA rather than the “people friendly” policies of Europe and more recently Brazil.

Over the past few years, we have seen a mushrooming of projects on public transport in Indian metros. This ought to be welcome news. However, as we are forced to make these choices in urban India, we need to take care that these are informed decisions, made with consideration of all consequences, direct and indirect. For instance, the congestion on London's M25 alone is estimated at a loss of productivity of $ 30 billion a year.

THE NEED FOR PLANNING

With the seemingly unquenchable urban thirst for expansion into the rural hinterlands, Indian metros today are a bizarre ad-hoc juxtaposition of gaons, hallis, urus - which have turned into densely populated squalid habitats - surrounded by glittering buildings and gated communities.

Urban planning impacts societies on a number of fronts: housing requirements for all social segments of existing and migrant population, micro-economic activities of people, social harmony and cohesion, sustained economic development of cities, aesthetic and environmental concerns. In essence, planning plays a significant role in contributing to people's overall quality of life.

However, somewhere along the way in our country, urban planning seems to have lost the significance it is due. It is hard to know how or why this happened. Perhaps part of the problem is that the domain of responsibility for planning lies with the state government rather than the city. This centralisation of planning results in two problems: first, given the number of responsibilities of the state government, the focus on individual cities' planning needs is reduced; second, accountability for ensuring success of plans is minimal when it rests with the state.

Our response to this absence of credible and enforceable plans for our cities, has been to exacerbate the problem, and move the levers of planning further up the bureaucratic food chain. But it is no longer feasible for an IAS officer to become the de-facto city planner. I have interacted with bureaucrats who were either unable to grasp the relevance of spatial planning beyond zoning and land use, or who genuinely believe that government is doing a great job of master plans. Urban planning requires a deep understanding of the multiple factors involved while retaining a focus on specifics. With the pulls and pressures on their time, most bureaucrats suffer from an “attention deficit syndrome” and invariably give short shrift to issues of urban planning. This is equally true of politicians, if not more so. Urban planning can no longer be a topic for generalists – it requires the involvement of domain specialists.

A brief context for mass transport in urban India

Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata are three cities that invested early in suburban railway systems (SURS) – the first two during pre-Independence and Kolkata in 1984. All three are the preferred mode of travel for the majority of residents, but are now incapable of meeting current travel demands. Mumbai was the first to build a suburban railway line in Asia, and carries over 6 million people every day. However, the 3-line, 303 km long system is proving insufficient. The mega polis is now embarking on an ambitious Mumbai Metro Rail System (MRTS) project in a public private partnership led by Reliance Energy Ltd. Chennai's second phase expansion of its suburban rail has been in the offing since 1984 and plagued by unstable soil conditions and construction delays, but is now apparently ready to use. The 16.5 km. Kolkata metro was the first underground rail in the country, built over a decade against all odds. Discussions are underway, on augmenting the metro with a Rs. 40 billion 19-km line from Ramrajatala in Howrah to Salt Lake, tunneling below the Ganges.

Delhi opened its MRTS to the public in 2002 – in almost equal parts underground, surface-level and elevated sections. Bangalore, Cochin and Hyderabad have all announced MRTS plans. Political leaders in Bangalore and Delhi have further announced the monorail systems as supplements to the MRTS. Pune, Indore, Jaipur and Ahmedabad are investing in Bus Rapid Transit Systems (BRTS) a la Bogotá.

Evaluating Mass Transit choices in India

However, let's examine the parameters of these decisions a little closely.

Compiled by Rishab R, Mallya Aditi, from transport department information available (note: daily ridership is calculated at 10 times peak time persons per hour) NA*- not available



Let's pause for a minute though, and examine the parameters of these decisions a little closely.

What is the financial impact of a city's choice of transport system? How is mass transport getting integrated into a cohesive urban transport plan? Who is responsible for integration? Are India's urbanites now going to have multi-modal options like the people of London and Paris? Will traffic calm down and people actually be able to uses the streets again?

I have identified SEVEN critical parameters that need to be examined in evaluating the mass transport choice of each city: comprehensive connectivity; convenience; financial affordability; frequency; reliability; safety & environment standards, and urban planning & aesthetics.



Financial Impact

Comparative table between MRTS and BRTS

Impact of mass transport choices on city space



While mass transits enhance connectivity and convenience, they also have a significant impact on our urban landscapes and aesthetics. I have traveled on Mr. Sreedharan's Delhi Metro and it is impressive. Delhi's roads can perhaps afford the space. I look at Bangalore and am deeply distressed by the vision of the MRTS running as a double-decker over MG road. This is a historic central area of the city and we will surely be destroying it. I am troubled by the impact of years of construction activity on the already beleaguered roads. We seem to be investing in ugliness and inconvenience. In addition, Bangalore has a new master plan for the city waiting in the wings, which does not even take into consideration the impact of the MRTS on the city.

How are master plans of different cities ensuring sustainable transport network in our metros? How is spatial planning addressing inner city congestion or urban sprawl while making provisions for connectivity in urban expansions? (Refer also CRRI 2002 report to GOI; National Urban Transport Policy)

Singapore, London, Paris, Washington, have used land use as strategic tools around transit stations - creating retail and business centres, pedestrian areas, high density housing. Each of these cities also connects key public spaces through public transport.

Importantly, each of these cities has a comprehensive transport strategy that looks at reducing travel needs, provides multi-modal connectivity through hubs, clusters economic activity around these hubs, maximizes density to make mass transport feasible, and projects land requirements for future developments. Sadly, none of urban India's mass transport decisions have come out of such strategic integration and planning. Most government planning departments in India suffer from meager and mediocre skilled planning resources.

Metropolitan Regional Transport Authority (MRTA)

Besides the gap resource gap, cities need to address the institutional gap in transport planning. Cities require an appropriate institutional body that will integrate the plans of bus, rail, road, air, waterways, traffic police, and urban growth. Such an integrated plan would be designed to respond to the current and future demands for public transport and connectivity.

The Singapore government recognized the need to put in place a single Land Transport Authority and the LTA was set up in 1995 - with the specific mission to provide a world-class transport system. The LTA put out a White Paper that outlined it's operating philosophy, initiatives, innovations and financial framework. “Improving public transport means not only improving bus or train travel. It means improving all the intermediate and end-point facilities that make for a complete door-to-door journey”. Bogotá put the transformation of the cityscape and its citizens' quality of life at the centerpiece of its comprehensive mobility strategy, and delivered just that.

A Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA) for each Indian metro is the need of the hour. The MTA could coordinate the transport plans of the various agencies and local governments in the metro region. The MTA would be responsible for planning, financial analysis, policy and monitoring, while the individual agencies would continue to be responsible for implementation.

Taking stock




Clearly we have reached the tipping point of urban chaos that has now galvanized action in many quarters. We now have the Jawaharlal Nehru National Renewal Mission (JNNURM) – the most ambitious in the history of urban India. This mission is funding many of the mass transit projects.



Thanks to JNNURM, establishing district or metropolitan planning committees as per the 74th Constitutional Amendment is a mandatory reform. These committees are meant to coordinate between development plans of local governments within a metropolitan region. MTA can thus be an arm within the Metropolitan Planning Committee (MPC).

The MTA would evaluate in detail the financial implications and environmental impact of connecting any proposed new developments into the mainframe transport plan. In all this, accountability of the MPC/MTA to the local governments and citizens - as envisioned in JNNURM - must be ensured.

There is good news on multiple fronts:


The market opportunity for mass transport investments, is rapidly creating capacity and skills in private enterprise within the country. We are beginning to see impressive investment in technical and planning skills in pockets of the country – CEPT, Ahmedabad, IIT Delhi, IDFC, and other consulting outfits are examples of this.

The Ahmedabad municipality has shown remarkable foresight by engaging with reputed academic institutions on its planning activities. The School of Centre for Environment and Planning (CEPT) is a strategic planning partner with the government. Delhi School of Planning has a very good transport program and also consults with various governments.



At a recent BRTS workshop in Jaipur - held by the Union Ministry - the commissioners of Indore and Pune candidly discussed the problems they were grappling with. These ranged from development controls, traffic management, planning regulations and impediments in physical conditions on the ground. Indore's entrepreneurship in fare structuring and bus operations can provide critical learning to other smaller cities.



Jaipur has embarked on a revision of its master plan and on a bus-based rapid transit system. Importantly, the city is integrating transport closely with land use and zoning. In addition, a consultation process has been designed with both local government and citizens. Greater Noida and Bangalore are both exploring Integrated Transport Hub projects, designed to serve local, regional, state and interstate needs.

Mass transit solutions also have other positive collateral benefits in the form of new ideas becoming viable. For instance, Singapore uses a judicious mix of the Vehicle Quota System (VQS), and road usage charges - Electronic Road Pricing (ERP), to keep their streets relatively free flowing and incentiviise public transport usage. London recently introduced a highly successful road pricing system to discourage private vehicle usage in the city centre. In Zurich, 75% of all trips to the city centre are through public transport. Indian cities could also attempt these ideas, but only once viable public transport alternatives are in place.
Need for sharing and learning

The transformation of our cities will be driven largely by the decisions on transport and connectivity. Given that cities are poised to take dramatic decisions impacting the quality of life of us all, it is vital that we share the experiences of our mass transport birth pangs. Given too that we are a country of scarce resources – land, finances, quality HR - with competing claims for these resources from other sectors, we cannot afford to make mistakes in mass transit. It will be one of the most expensive capital investments the cities will make and there's no changing track in-between. There is much to learn from each other's exposure to the complexities involved. It is therefore important to invest in knowledge resources and networking opportunities so that cities are equipped to make the right choices.

The conference on India Urban Space – IndiaUSP - is designed precisely to play this role. It will be a national platform for practitioners, planners, policy-makers and the public to come together on various critical challenges facing our cities, including public transport. IndiaUSP will be a marketplace of ideas, project innovations, products and services. The Exhibition Program will include substantial material on transport systems, both on what is already being tried in India, as well as outside the country.

The success of IndiaUSP will not be complete without your involvement, as a professional working in the urban arena. Get in touch with IndiaUSP for further information, to share ideas or comments regarding the conference, or to participate - at indiausp@janaagraha.org

Snapshot of  transport features from three cities