Revision as of 17:55, 12 August 2016

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.

2007-15: Public transport in Delhi

The Times of India, Dec 10 2015

Automobiles/ transport in Delhi, 2010-15; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, December 10, 2015

Ambika Pandit

Capital's public transport losing battle of attrition

The Delhi Statistical Handbook 2015 released by the state government shows a lack of focus on public transport. Now that the government wants to try out its odd-even formula for private vehicles, the latest report shows just how prepared the state is for the exercise. In 2007-08, Delhi had 17, 29, 695 registered cars and jeeps.Cut to 2014-15 and the figure is 27, 90, 566. The total number of new vehicles registered increased from 5.19 lakhs in 2013-14 to 5.34 lakhs in 2014-15, taking the total number of registered cars in the capital to 88.27 lakhs.

The two-wheeler count went up as well. In 2010-11, there were 43, 42, 403 registered two-wheelers in the city; in 2014-15, the figure rose to 56, 81, 265. Public transport, on the other hand, has seen a steady decline. A look at the total bus data (including ambulances and mini buses) shows that in 2011-12, there were 64, 033 buses; in 2012-13, the number fell o 39, 694. A year later, there was marginal improvement when the figure went up to 40,947. But in 2014-15, it plummeted to 32, 540.

The data shows how the authorities made poor plans. In 2013-14, there were 5,216 DTC buses of which 4,567 were functional; in 2014-15, the numbers dropped to 4,705 and 4,180 respectively . Passenger numbers also dropped: 14,187.28 lakh in 2014-15 from 15,867.61lakh in 2013-14.

The handbook doesn't account for Metro ridership, but it can be surmised that with bus ridership going down, there were more takers for the Metro and many preferred to use their own cars.

Even autorickshaw numbers declined from 91, 840 in 2013-14 to 81, 633 in 2014-15. But taxis went up to 79, 606 in 2014 5 from 57, 958 in 2010-11.

2010 to 2015: Irregularities and loss of 5,022 crore

The Times of India, Jun 14 2016

In just 5 years, DTC lost Rs 5,000 crore: CAG

The audit of Delhi Transport Corporation by CAG comes as an eyeopener, especially after it was lauded for its work during the two rounds of odd-even scheme. The CAG report, which spans over the financial years from 2010 to 2015, list many irregularities with the biggest being the loss of Rs 5,022.05 crore on operations. The reason is DTC's refusal to rationalise its bus routes and inefficient route planning. DTC was operating 574 out of 791 routes as on March 31, 2015. “Comparing the earning per km (EPK) with total operating cost per km, the audit observed that not one of these routes was profitable and many of them were not recovering even the variable cost (excluding employee cost, depreciation, etc),“ said the report. As a result, DTC suffered a loss of Rs 5,022.05 crore on operations during 2010-2015.

“The management stated (February , 2016) that the buses were allocated on a route based on its income and passenger load factor. The reply is not tenable as the corporation was not compiling any route-wise income and expenditure data,“ the report added.

The corporation also did not carry out a periodical review of its routes for optimising revenue, even though many of them were not recovering even the variable cost that increased from 15.24% to 63.80% during 2010-2015. This is despite the fact that Delhi government had ordered a route rationalisation report by DIMTS.

The transport department's decision to allow cluster buses, via DIMTS, to operate on more profitable routes in greater numbers than that agreed upon added to DTC's mounting losses.

The CAG report said, “The audit observed that deployment of buses between DTC and cluster buses on 13 routes with comparatively higher earning per kilometre was not in accordance with agreed ratio of 50:50.“ The auditor found that 7.14% to 28.57% trips were allocated to cluster buses in excess of the agreed share.

“The corporation pointed out the deficiency to the transport department on seven routes. The department of transport had not taken action till date to enforce the agreed proportion of buses,“ said the report, adding that the failure to ensure adherence to the agreed 50:50 ratio “adversely impacted“ the revenue earning potential of DTC and impacted its financial interest.

A list of other deficiencies that led to losses include missed kilometres, which went up over the past five years. “Ratio of trips operated by corporation buses against trips scheduled increased from 79.13% in 2010-11 to 85.76% in 2011-12, but decreased to 80.33% in 2014-15,“ said the report. Interestingly , 1,888 buses of 34 de pots were challaned and impounded for 3,831 days during 2010-15 resulting in 7.38 lakh km being missed and Rs 1.29 crore revenue being lost.

The rate of breakdowns per 10,000km went up during the same period, from 1.77 in 2010-11 to 5.35 in 2014-15. A total of 67 fire incidents in buses also took place.

DTC also lost out on funds worth Rs 204.57 crore under JNNURM for procurement of buses as it couldn't buy them, even though it had the funds.Further, the fleet utilisation and vehicle productivity was less than all-India averages.

Ring Rail

The Times of India, Jan 18 2016

The Delhi Ring Rail: Ridership and economics; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, Jan 18 2016

Anvit Srivastava

Ring Rail, an idea gone off the track

The Ring Rail project appears to have been given a quiet burial. Blame it on the Metro, if you must, as with DMRC expanding its reach, the railways seems to be reluctant to revive the line for public use. Of course, there is the small matter of lack of lastmile connectivity and encroachments around the tracks. The average daily ridership comes to a measly 3,700, earning the exchequer somewhere in the vicinity of Rs 1 lakh and it's not tough to gauge why Ring Rail is dying a slow death. Ridership has continuously gone down over the years. Sample this: In 2013-14, the annual ridership on the route was 1.5 lakh passengers.This came down sharply to 1.2 lakh in 2014-15.

Railway officials contend that the route has already crossed its capacity utilisation--along with 10 EMUs, around 80 goods trains and three express trains run on this track. Sources said the city government, in December 2015, proposed that a committee be formed to look into the Ring Rail revival. Till date, it's yet to receive a single proposal.

The corridor was developed with the express objective of diverting heavy freight traffic entering the New Delhi station line during peak hours. While the route definitely shares a huge freight burden, it has failed on the passenger service front. “There is no scope of increasing traffic on the line. Every day, five trains each run in the morning and the evening.With the decline in number of passengers, the route is already running under loss. At present, there are no plans for expansion,“ said Arun Arora, divisional railway manager of Delhi division, Northern Railways.

The third phase of Delhi Metro, connecting Mayur Vi har, Lajpat Nagar, Dhaula Kuan and Rajouri Garden, may result in further decline in ridership, Arora said.

The route is also used for five special trains -Palace on Wheels, Maharaja Express, Deccan Odyssey , Buddhist Special train and Royal Rajasthan on Wheels -which originate and terminate at Safdarjung station.

“Deserted locations, badly maintained platforms, encroachments, poor safety measures and lack of last-mile connectivity are keeping passengers away ,“ conceded Arora. The single-line, diesel-hauled service on Ring Railway route was introduced on October 2, 1975. Seven years later, the double line with electric traction was put into motion. Twenty-four trains were added during the Asian Games.

The 35.36km stretch connects 21 stations, including 12 halts and nine block stations.These include Lajpat Nagar, Lodi Colony , Sarojini Nagar, Safdarjung, Chanakyapuri, Patel Nagar, Nizamuddin and Pragati Maidan.

Odd even II, 2016

The Times of India, Jun 03 2016

Ambika Pandit

The tall claims of the government on the success of the oddeven scheme notwithstanding, data from oil companies show that the second phase of the plan didn't lead to a considerable decline in the sale of petrol and diesel in the capital. The sale of petrol, in fact, rose from 1,16,315 kilolitres in March to 1,19,593 kilolitres in April. The dip in the sale of diesel, on the other hand, wasn't much either. Data from oil companies -IOCL, BPCL and HPCL -show that the sale of diesel was almost static at 1,35,110 in April. The figure for March was 1,35,340 kilolitres.

It was the searing heat, coupled with lack of adequate public transport options, which probably led to a higher number of people using private vehicles during odd-even 2.

The AAP government had showcased data from the first phase of the oddeven scheme to highlight its success, as the sale of both petrol and diesel had shown a visible decline during that period.

In fact, value-added tax (VAT) collections from the sale of petrol and die sel were lower by Rs 40 crore in January than December 2015.

However, April had quite a different tale to tell. It's likely that compliance to the vehicular restrictions was better in January because of the cold weather. Schools being closed for vacations also played an important part in a lower number of vehicles being on the roads.

IOCL, BPCL and HPCL together sold 1,52,272 KL of diesel in December. The sales declined to 1,39,411 KL in January but again rose to 14,5374 KL in February . They sold 1,14,538 KL of petrol in December, 1,05,525 KL in January and 1,07,542 KL in February.

The Aam Aadmi Party government notified a hike on VAT on petrol and diesel on January 19, four days after the first phase of odd-even ended. The rate was hiked from 25% to 27% for petrol and from 16.6% to 18% for diesel.

The government said it had rationalised VAT on the two fuels on the basis of a decision taken at a meeting of finance ministers of northern states for bringing uniformity in tax rates.