Revision as of 18:58, 15 August 2015

Delhi: Transportation

Dawn

Nidhi Sharma | TNN

Govt wants to know why you shun buses

Delhi government is all set to conduct the firstever survey in Delhi and NCR to ask people using personal vehicles for suggestions to improve public transport and make it attractive enough for them to leave their cars at home and switch over. The government would ask owners of private cars driving into Delhi to give inputs on the bus system and the Metro. They would be asked for suggestions on types of seating, kind of buses and Metro routes that could be introduced. There has been an exponential growth in the number of vehicles in the Capital. The maximum increase has been registered in the number of personal vehicles, especially cars and jeeps. The number of vehicles have increased from 26.30 lakh in 1995-96 to 48.30 in 2005-06, at an annual compound growth rate of 5.84%. Decennial growth rate is substantially higher in case of private vehicles (91.62%) as compared to commercial vehicles (6.67%).

In case of private vehicles, cars and jeeps have registered a decennial growth rate of 130.18%, which is the highest among all the categories of vehicles followed by two-wheelers (bikes and scooters) with 76.85%. Seeing this, the Union UD ministry has written to Delhi chief secretary, Ramesh Narayanaswami, directing him to get a survey conducted and develop proposals ‘‘for expanding and strengthening the public transport system’’.

Sources said the chief secretary has asked Delhi government’s principal secretary (UD) to get a survey conducted. Apart from this, the transport department has also been asked to develop a web-enabled information system. This would provide all public transport options between two points in the city to the commuter. This would have an integrated interface on Metro lines, bus routes, timings of buses and station information.

The ministry is looking at expanding the public transport as the only solution for reducing traffic congestion. Transport experts feel that rather than constructing more flyovers for increasing speed of cars, government should strengthen the public transport so that more people prefer it over personal cars. Dr Geetam Tiwari of IIT Delhi’s Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Programme said: ‘‘Government should expand the bus service. With more and better buses, the people would switch over to the public transport and the traffic congestion situation would improve.’’

Public and other transport: 1980s-2015

The Times of India, Aug 13 2015

Some facts, Vehicles in Delhi: 1980-2014 and tax on vehicles; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India

Rumu Banerjee

Buses have ceded road space to private cars, which are not a part of public transport, in the capital. With their big carrying capacity, buses are the ideal mode for big cities. Metro has its limitations. Delhi has neglected its bus fleet over the years and needs to expand it urgently The number of buses in Delhi has decreased over the years. In the 1980s, there were 57 buses for every one lakh Delhiites. By 2007-08 the figure had fallen to 34, and today it stands at just 25. In itself, the numerical slide should imply the streets are freer. But what it indicates instead is the decline of a reliable public transport system ­ and the clogging of roads by private vehicles. Till only a few decades ago, public transport ­ mainly buses ­ comprised 60% of the traffic. It is the other way now ­ private cars make up 60% of vehicular population today . There are fewer buses of the state-run Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), the city's emblematic public transporter, on the roads. The DTC fleet has come down from a high of 5,600 buses in 2012 to 4,705 now after the scrap ping of many aged machines. No new buses have been added to the fleet in the past two years. Four years ago, the government also opened up public transport to private operators in a bid to ease DTC's workload. But of the targeted 4,000 such buses, there are only 1,465 of them running on the streets, their expansion hampered by the lack of parking depots.

Experts point out that the increasing congestion on the capital's roads stems partly from buses ceding road space to private cars.“Congestion is not a problem, it is only a symptom of a problem,“ says Amit Bhatt of Embarq, a transport planning body . Anumita Roy Chowdhury of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) adds, “The fact that we are talking about congestion means that the critical phase is here. Action needs to be taken immediately .“ It isn't as if the government doesn't agree. A committee set up by the ministry of urban development last year decided that Delhi would be provided with not only more buses, but also 124 km of special bus corridors and 140 km of new roads, flyovers and elevated corridors.

However, experts such as Roychowdhury and Shreya Gadepalli of the Insitute for Transport and Development Policy caution against a focus on road infrastructure. Gadepalli points out that Delhi already has more street space per capita than any other Indian city and characterises the laying of more roads as “a futile attempt to fulfil the insatiable demand for car-oriented infrastructure“. “The real solution,“ she says, “is better public transport and stringent measures to control personal motor vehicle use.“

With a daily ridership of 45 lakh commuters, DTC's reach is huge. Yet, inefficiencies in the system as well as the government's refusal to bolster its fleet have meant that the bus system remains unreliable.The government's refusal to rationalise the bus routes is another bottleneck. DTC buses make 40,000 trips every day over two shifts, while private cluster buses do around 13,000.The bus routes are decided randomly, based on commuter requests and political instruc tions rather than scientific ground survey inputs.

The gov ernment's attention, however, has been on building roads and flyovers, on which it spends 82% of its transport budget. Diverting funds towards improving the bus system would be a big step forward. “The biggest advantage of buses is their capacity to carry a larger number of commuters in a safe environment,“ points out RS Minhas, spokesman for DTC.

Of course, the burden of the bus network has been eased by the Delhi Metro. It takes care of the transport needs of 27 lakh commuters every day, and by the time Phase IV of its expansion is completed in 2021, it is expected to have a ridership of over 40 lakh. However, transport planners say that the reach of the Metro is limited.While metro systems are effective in carrying passengers over long distances, they lose their edge when it comes to shorter trips, those that form a major part of the daily travel needs of citizens.

The only way forward in such a situation is to boost the bus sys tem. “Buy 11,200 buses and 4,700 mini-buses, build 620 km of bus corridors and provide seamless integration between the bus sys tem and the Metro,“ prescribes Gadepalli. Augment this by increasing bus frequency, creating common ticketing, and boosting the passenger information service and bus performance monitoring, adds Roychowdhury .In addition, the government should create footpaths and cycle tracks along the arterial street network to ensure that by the time the Metro network is completed, almost every locality in the capital is within 400 meters of some station or bus stop. It is this that can significantly reduce the capital's dependence on private cars.

Diesel vehicles, restrictions on

The Times of India, Aug 13 2015

Orders by National Green Tribunal on vehicles in Delhi, 2014-15; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, Aug 13 2015

NGT cited apex court order upholding ban

The ban on diesel vehicles over 10 years old in NCR stays, as the National Green Tribunal declined to change its order. It said Delhi government and states that are part of NCR may decide whether to continue to take action against old vehicles. Additional solicitor general Pinky Anand, appearing for the road transport ministry , sought that the order be modified “in public interest“, saying if truckers went on strike -as they were mulling -it would impact supply of essentials to the capital. The government shouldn't be expected to challan them as long as the matter was pending, she urged.

The bench headed by NGT chair Justice Swatanter Kumar responded, “We decline to vary our earlier order. Till disposal of application... it's for the state to challan diesel vehicles or not to prevent... non-supply of essential articles to Delhi.“ ASG Anand had ap proached NGT appeal ing for a modification to NGT's earlier order: “In public interest, at least the state may not be held responsible for challaning of diesel vehicles during the pendency of the application.“ Anand said, “If the transport associations or truckers go on strike because of authorities not issuing them fitness certificates, common people will suffer. That is why we are appealing that the order be withdrawn or modified for the time being,“ Anand said.

The All India Motor Transport Congress in a meeting on August 10 had decided to abandon their commercial vehicles more than 10 years old at the entry point of Delhi at Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Badarpur and Noida. The purpose was to protest against the nonissuance of re-registration and fitness certificates of diesel vehicles that are over 10 years old by the state govern ments of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, in response to NGT's order of banning these old vehicles.

The tribunal also said the ban on the vehicles over a decade old has been upheld by the Supreme Court and the tribunal cannot go against the apex court's decision.

Anand told the bench that truck operators were mulling a strike and protesting against governments of Delhi, Haryana and UP for not is suing fitness certificates to diesel vehicles more than 10 years old. A strike could mean disruption of the supply of essential services to the city.

In the weeks following NGT's order to ban, Delhi traffic police had impounded about 2,000 polluting diesel vehicles. These were released later on. No more vehicles have been impounded since.

The Centre had moved NGT seeking a stay on the ban order. The ministry has also sought a time of six months to suggest measures to address air pollution. In its application, the ministry had claimed only 7% of the vehicles in the capital are over 10 years old and that any “stringent measure of ad-hoc nature to ban vehicles on the basis of age will not provide any holistic solution to the pollution problem.“

It subsequently submitted several IIT Delhi studies and documents to argue that the transport sector is not responsible for the majority of emissions.