Traffic / Transport Solutions

professionalised bus services - the only answer

2008-06-21T02:48:00.000-07:00

text of the posting made by me on the Hasiru Usiru Yahoogroup on 10th June:

I am amazed. All of us are agreed that better public bus transport services is the answer. But, rather than demanding effective competition from professional players, which in my opinion is the only factor that can make BMTC accountable, we continue to suffer its incapacity meekly. Various attempts have been made by various people and teams, and at various stages, to make BMTC's functioning more user friendly (Their operations are supposed to be profitable - so, there's no problem there). But, they have all had just marginal impact, if at all.

There are more attempts being made even now. I can only wish them all good luck. As far as I am concerned, I have given up. I am talking from my experiences while working with BMTC for over two years in the capacity of the co-Chairman of its Commuter Comfort Task Force (CCTF), and later while implementing the "Yelli Iddira?" service.

Leave alone "Yelli Iddira?", leave alone route rationalisation. Also, they can continue to display the route names only in Kannada as per the dictates of organisations like the KRV (Kannada Rakshana Vedike), though in the process they will be losing out on the custom of the huge non-Kannada speaking floating population. All I am asking is that they display just the route numbers in internationally recognisable Arabic numerals (as they are called) on say atleast 90% of the buses prominently (Just check out for yourself, when you step out, whether what I am saying is true or not). Can anyone manage that, to begin with? I would like to see.

I would again like to reiterate that BMTC is amongst the best of the public bus transport services in the country, and has also been steadily improving its services over the years. There's absolutely no denying that. Also, most present users are content with its present level of operation. And, if BMTC was to cater to the needs of just this section of the population, it could have carried on in the present fashion - no problem. But, with the trips made by this lot contributing to just 45% odd (in my opinion, it should be much lower) trips made by the citizens on the whole, and the city population growing at an exponential pace, the remaining 55% trips made using personalised forms of transport are going to get our roads progressively more cluttered than they presently are. So, if there has to be a solution, we have to get these people to switch to using the public bus transport services, at least for commuting, which cannot happen unless there is a quantum improvement in the service quality, much above the present level. Appealing to the people's conscience over environmental issues can work for say 10%, higher fuel cost can contribute may be another 15%, but the bulk 75% conversion can happen on account of this one factor alone.

So, what I am suggesting today is that we direct all our efforts at engaging the minister concerned into effecting policy changes to bring in effective competition, which is the only way we can solve the problem as well as make BMTC more accountable.

For more, click on
http://praja.in/bangalore/blog/murali772/2008/06/01/bus-services-differe...

road to prosperity

2008-05-14T05:48:00.000-07:00

Road to Prosperity - UP offers investment opportunities in Transport Sector - the UP government ad (in all leading dailies today) caption says it all. They have decided to allow private sector to operate passenger buses (stage carriages) on all routes, including notified/ nationalised routes.

This is exactly what is required in as key an infrastructure area as public bus transport services. The resulting prosperity in the rural areas, and the de-congestion in the urban areas, are going to be the new drivers of the state economy.

Salient points (as appearing in the ad), and my comments are as below:

a) Government has decided to allow private sector to operate passenger buses (stage carriages) on all routes, including notified/ nationalised routes.
Comment: Excellent

b) Selection through a competitive bidding process to operate on area/ route permit basis.
Comments: The idea of competitive bid is obviously to maximise revenue for the government. Now, this is a key infrastructure sector, which has been badly neglected all these years due to bad government policies. As such, rather than just attempting to maximise revenues, the government should evolve a process which will facilitate the entry of professional organised sector players, even if it amounts to foregoing a bit of the revenue in the process, initially. The indirect benefits to the state's economy, by the opening up, will eventually prove far more beneficial than the revenue foregone.

And, rather than allocating routes, it will be better to identify some 3 players initially, and allow them freedom to select/ fix routes, schedules, type (luxury/ ordinary, etc), as well as fares.

After allowing for some three months from the date of operationalisation (for stabilisation), additional players may be brought in, however keeping the overall capacity at not more than 25% of the total estimated demand.

c) Operator should be willing to service every revenue village in his operational area.
Comment: If the roads are maintained properly, and if there are no restrictions on the fare leviable, this will be automatic. And, if an operator charges high initially, others will soon come along, and level things out.

d) Company/ Consortium should bring in a fleet of 4,000 or more buses.
Comment: If as suggested earlier, some three players are identified initially, this should be OK. This provision appears to have been introduced essentuially to eliminate the BLUELINE kind of operators. But, this seems to be going to the other extreme. A figure of 1,000 is more realistic.

e) Buses, particularly on trunk routes, required to have all kinds of gadgetry, in addition to safety and disabled-friendly aspects.
Comment: While safety and disabled-friendly aspects need to be insisted on, the other aspects can be left to the operators to choose whether to provide or not.

f) Operators should have mixed fleet - luxury, ordinary, large/ small, etc based on route requirements and passenger demand.
Comment: Again best left to the operators to decide, based (as stated) on route requirements and passenger demand.

g) Buses should not be more than one year old at the time of grant of permits, and maximum age thereafter - 10 years for trunk route operation; 12 for feeder route operation.
Comment: very much desirable

h) Expression of interest accompanying bank draft of Rs 15,000/- invited.
Comment: Should be OK. But, as I have already stated, revenue maximisation should not be the only criterion.

Beyond the above, I will be in a position to comment only as and when addition info is available. Unfortunately, the government/ department web-site is not exactly very informative.

However, another important aspect that has necessarily to be looked into is the need for 'all bus stands to be taken over and run (or better still - leased out to professional contractors) by local bodies, like City Corporations, Municipalities, etc, making the facilities available to all service providers against user charges.

More on these, and other aspects are outlined in the very first posting on this blog, and at
http://traffic-transport-solutions.blogspot.com/2008/03/critique-on-brts.html

Now, whatever is Karnataka waiting for???

too heavy a price to pay

2008-04-28T01:41:00.000-07:00

text of the letter sent to the press:

The reports (and accompanying pictures) in the press over the last week on the bus accident in Bodeli, Gujarat, leading to the death of 45 people, 41 of them school children, made for extremely sad reading. Whether it resulted from poor maintenance practices or driver negligence, repeat incidences of similar nature, across the country (there were two involving our own BMTC in the 3rd week of March), are a clear indication of the moribund state of the public bus transport services sector, languishing as they remain largely dominated by the state. Even where private players have been allowed, too many controls remain for the organised sector players to be interested in making an entry. And, the fact of he matter is that unless the organised sector players come in, there is no salvation for this key infrastructure sector. And, we will continue to pay a heavy price.

Safety is just one aspect. The other costs on account of incapacities and inefficiencies can be valued at a zillion.

veritable death-traps

2008-03-31T07:05:00.000-07:00

text of the letter sent to TOI:

I refer to the report about the car crash in Krishnagiri (on the Bangalore-Chennai express-way) resulting in the death of two young men, and serious injuries to a young lady, published in your columns on the 29th, under the caption 'car did 90 km in one hour'.

The whole idea of building 'tolled' express-ways is to enable fast travel, and, with modern cars matching up in performance, 90 kmph speed is passe'. Now, out of the toll amounts collected, apart from keeping the roads in good repair, one would have expected that the contractors are required to carry out rigorous patrolling to ensure that traffic violations (by a local bus), of the kind that led to the accident, do not happen. Very clearly, that's not quite the case, turning these express-ways into veritable death-traps. The bereaved relatives will be doing a great service to the public by lodging hefty compensation claims in order that appropriate lessons are learnt for the future.

Also, no credible effort seems to have ever been put in by the State in educating the rural folk living along these road stretches, and using them for their daily chores, on even basic safety aspects.

dependability of BMTC in question

2008-03-26T22:13:00.000-07:00

text of the letter sent to the press:

Within the same week, there have been two instances of BMTC buses being involved in serious crashes, supposedly due to 'brake failure'. In one, the conductor died, even as many were injured, and quite seriously too, in both.

Now, with the kind of advanced technologies that go into vehicle design and manufacture these days, one hardly hears of such happenings elsewhere. Very clearly, therefore, these mishaps are resulting out of the poor maintenance practices followed by BMTC - doesn't quite inspire much confidence amongst the public, particularly when it is poised to take on the additional responsibility of providing critical connectivity to the new airport.

Ironically, also, even as these reports have appeared in the press, there is another about the conferment of a 'Citizen Extraordinaire' award by a Rotary Club on the MD. Admittedly, extra-ordinary efforts are required to make a monopoly government organisation accountable!

A critique on BRTS

2008-03-24T21:59:00.000-07:00

The following is the full text of the comments under 'guest column' on page 2 of TOI today.

Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) when operated with high capacity buses gets to be called High Capacity Bus System (HCBS).

Curitiba in Brazil supposedly pioneered this model, following the 'success' of which quite a few other cities across the world have adopted it. In India, a team of technocrats from IIT, Delhi have been advocating this model from long, and as a result, the city of New Delhi has just about launched this scheme along one route, with a few more set to follow soon. The Delhi experiment has been receiving a lot of flak in the local media, which the supporters of the model would like to label as the propaganda by METRO/ MONO - rail, and automobile lobbies.

Now, whether BRTS or HCBS, both call for dedicated lanes in the centre of a given road. Allowing for 20 + 20 ft for the dedicated lanes on either side of a 10 ft wide median to accommodate the bus stops, it will leave just 50 ft for everything else on a 100 ft (between the outer edges of the drains on either side) road, like the one in Indiranagar. Thus, after providing for 20 ft lanes on either side for the general traffic, which by themselves are going to be terribly crammed, you will be left with a balance of 5 ft on either edges for drains, foot-paths, utility lines, etc. Plainly, that will mean the end of the majestic trees along this road.

The question further is how many roads do you have of this width in Bangalore?

Now, going by plain logic, supposing in any given route direction, BMTC is operating at a frequency of a bus every 3 minutes, and the buses are moving at an average speed of 10 kmph, there will be a gap of 500 M between any two buses. As such, if a lane is dedicated exclusively for the buses, it will then push out 100 other vehicles from this 500 M stretch (making for 200 vehicles per km), assuming an average vehicle length of 5M, and near bumper-to-bumper traffic conditions. This is total under utilisation of high demand city road space. If the cost of this much of land is factored into the project costing, particularly in cities like Bangalore, then the differential between the METRO-rail and the HCBS will narrow considerably.

The above apart, the access structures to the bus stops on the central median, can be fairly complicated and costly, particularly if you are following the Curitiba model. Also, while getting the traffic to move smoothly along straight road stretches is generally not a serious issue, the challenge is in getting them to negotiate the junctions smoothly. In this, the BRTS, for all its engineering, fails to provide satisfactory solutions.

There is a telling picture of a stretch of road in some city, which has adopted the model, showing an empty stretch of over 100M behind a bus on a dedicated lane, even as the adjoining lane (in the same direction) is totally cluttered with vehicles of all kinds, particularly two-wheelers. Very clearly, even with having introduced the HCBS on dedicated lanes, it has not caused citizens to switch from the use of their two-wheelers, leading to the problems aggravating even further.

Thus, while dedicated lanes may be OK on stretches leading to and from bus depots, or on stretches where the frequency is higher than say a bus every 15 seconds, on regular roads, they are totally ill-advised. Rather than dedicated lanes, total ban on private vehicles (meaning - vehicles other than buses, taxi's and auto's) on select stretches, during peak hours, would any day be preferable.

All these apart, BRT schemes are invariably envisaged as operations by Companies promoted by Municipalities, with 'artificial monopoly' (as different from natural monopoly situations, like in the case of power distribution) franchises being tendered out for different districts/ routes. In the case of the Indore city set up, for example (a presentation on which was made in Bangalore recently), the Company takes all decisions with regard to routes, fares, types of buses, schedules, etc, with hardly any discretion being left to the service providers. While the revenue generation out of cash sales comes straight into the hands of the individual operators, out of the earnings from sale of monthly passes (which are managed by the Company), a fixed sum of the order of Rs 22,000/- per bus per month is made over to them. If the targets are not achieved, which could very well happen considering the various kinds of forces at play, it will eventually lead to a subsidy regime.

Also, with far too many controls and restrictions still in place, I expect, TATA's, TVS's would still want to keep a safe distance, leaving the field to the local mafia chieftains to play ball with the Company authorities, more or less like the PWD operations in most states.

All in all, BRTS is not exactly a satisfactory model. In the case of Bangalore, the Bangalore Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA) has been instituted. There is a proposal to strengthen and broad-base it. Once that is in done, what Bangalore needs to do is to facilitate the entry of players of the stature of TATA's and TVS's to provide the services in open competition with the BMTC, on a level playing field, with the minimum of restrictions. Public bus transport services today is too vital an infrastructure area not to have the competent services of such players.

technology can help but to a limited extent

2008-03-12T02:26:00.000-07:00

text of the letter sent to the New Indian Express:

I refer to the news report captioned 'wi-fi enabled bus to make smart travel a reality' published in your columns today (12th March, '08).

What does not seem to be appreciated by the public in general is the fact that however good and technologically advanced a bus may be, as long as its operation is in the hands of the government-owned monopoly BMTC, it can make a marginal impact if at all on the overall travel experience.

The BMTC has had on its fleet some 50 VOLVO buses, which are comparable to the best in the world, from over two years. But, even now, the utilisation of these, apart from the overall ridership they enjoy, is pretty dismal by any standard. A GPS-enabled service for tracking these buses through SMS, known as 'Yelli Iddira?', which helped improve ridership considerably, was abandoned unceremoniously after it had served the purpose of getting BMTC some publicity mileage, leaving the users who had come to depend on it totally in the lurch.

Very clearly, therefore, technology can do only so much. The real change can happen only with policy revisions enabling effective competition from organised private sector players. The attendant benefits that will accrue to the city as well as its citzens, in addition, will also be really huge.

BMTC's grandiose schemes

2008-03-12T02:21:00.000-07:00

text of the letter sent to TOI:

I refer to the report in your columns today (12th March,'08) under the caption "Decongesting Bangalore - Research Institute for Transport Soon".

The very first policy recommendation that the Centre for Sustainable Transport and Urban Planning (CSTUP), proposed by BMTC alongwith allocating it a Rs 30 crore corpus, could be to open out the 'public bus transport services sector' to competition from organised private sector players on a level playing field. But, it is quite inconceivable that a body promoted by BMTC, an interested party, will ever do that. And consequently, while promoting such a Centre may not be such a bad idea, it is best left in the hands of either an IIM, or a reputed Architecture and Town Plannning school.

It could cost far lesser too. And, after all, we are talking about public money.

root cause of all of city's traffic problems

2008-02-14T04:11:00.000-08:00

text of letter sent to TOI:

I refer to the letter captioned "BMTC's monopoly blocking bnefits of competition" by Smt Malini Rao, published in your columns today.

Everything she says is true, and there is a lot more. If "Indian" is a competent service provider in the airlines services sector today, it is only because of competition. Likewise, BMTC can also become competent and customer friendly only when and if there is effective competition from organised private sector players. Also, efficient bus services have become extremely critical to the organised growth of Indian cities today to be just left in the hanfds of monopoly government agencies. It is high time the government facilitated the entry of the likes of TATAs and TVS into the field.

missing the point

2008-01-21T03:35:00.000-08:00

Last evening, I happened to watch the ‘Devil’s Advocate’ programme on CNN-IBN, where Karan Thapar was interviewing Sunita Narayan (of CSE). The subject of discussion was TATA motor’s NANO. And, contrary to the norm, both were generally agreed on many of the points that came up.

An important point that they both stressed on was the need for the likes of TATA to be making world-class buses, even as they have begun making world-class cars. But, the even more important aspect that they, and everyone else, seem to miss out on is the need for the likes of TATA’s to get into providing public bus transport services. These services are too vital for the nation to be left in the hands of government-run monopoly organizations. The present regime does not allow for their entry. If facilitated, their entry will change the entire dimensions of the problem, and solutions to many of the current ones will become automatic, contributing significantly to improved quality of life, both of the poor as well as the rich.

Besides, this does not require a single paisa investment from the government side. Perhaps, that’s where the problem lies, since it will mean the drying up of another source of making money underhand.

the problem lies within us

2007-12-27T03:14:00.000-08:00

The greens group 'Hasiru Usiru' had organised a public meeting last week to convey its protest against the BBMP's road widening programme and the resulting destruction of the city's tree wealth. I made a presentation captioned "Better bussing for a green Bangalore" towards offering alternate solutions. My experience, detailed in the following posting I made in the HU y-group, will show where the problem largely lies.

That improved bus services is the most cost-effective answer to the exponentially increasing traffic, and attendant problems, in the city has been known for ages. But, neither the government nor the people want to look beyond BMTC to provide it - some because of vested interests, some because of dogma, some due to a lack of awareness, and some because of a combination of all these factors.

Yes, there are the lot, who in their fascination with the ‘growth’ of the economy, seem oblivious of the stress we are subjecting mother earth to. In that respect, Mr D’s presentation has considerable relevance, and, with his permission, I am proposing to pass it on to various groups, more particularly ones involving school children.

When I originally proposed to make my presentation at the public meeting, there was every effort to dissuade me. At the meeting, every effort was made to hurry me through, so much so, I was quite distracted and missed out on many aspects that I wanted to bring out before the gathering. The press release, as well as the display material at the venue, didn’t seem to carry any of the points that I was making. The specific mention of ‘facilitating entry of private players into bus services’ in the Urban Transport Policy was deliberately omitted. I was asked specifically to state that the views expressed were my own.

Now, the question that arises is where do the people responsible for all these fit into in the list that I have made out at the end of the first para? I must admit I am a little perplexed. In their desperation to see that the TVS’s and TATA’s don’t get into the picture, aren’t they subverting the interests of the HU? Isn’t TVS already amongst the biggest beneficiaries under the existing scenario, recording as it is perhaps the highest sales in the world for its two-wheelers in the city of Bangalore? And, aren’t TATA’s set to follow suit with their Rs1-lakh car?

Nobody can deny that the private sector players have shown us the way in the other sectors which have been liberalized, with everyone concerned including the poorest of the poor benefiting considerably. Admittedly, there are corrections required. But, that doesn’t mean we should continue to suffer and pay for the burdens imposed by the public sector monopolies.

Muralidhar Rao

The irrationality of dedicated lanes

2007-12-06T05:28:00.000-08:00

text of the letter sent to the New Indian Express:

I refer to the report captioned 'auto lanes may be allotted to BMTC' published in your columns on the 5th instant.

The idea of 'dedicated lanes' for BMTC buses seems to have caught the fancy of every self-appointed traffic expert. And, there seem to be plenty of them in the city today, apart from the author.

Now, going by plain logic, supposing in any given route direction, BMTC is operating at a frequency of a bus every 3 minutes, and the buses are moving at an average speed of 10 kmph, there will be a gap of 500 M between any two buses. As such, if a lane is dedicated exclusively for the buses, it will then push out 100 other vehicles from this 500 M stretch (making for 200 vehicles per km), assuming an average vehicle length of 5M, and near bumper-to-bumper traffic conditions. This is total under utilisation of high demand city road space.

There is a telling picture of a stretch of road in some city, showing an empty stretch of over 100M behind a bus on a dedicated lane, even as the adjoining lane (in the same direction) is totally cluttered with vehicles of all kinds, particularly two-wheelers. Very clearly, even with having introduced high capacity mass transport bus services on dedicated lanes, the citizens still prefer to use their two-wheelers, leading to the problems remaining unresolved.

The above is just one factor. The chaos the dedicated lanes cause at road junctions is another major factor. Further, with the dedicated lanes generally located on either side of the central median, providing access to commuters becomes complicated and expensive. Dedicated lanes on the edges are a new concept, but suffer from similar infirmities.

Thus, while dedicated lanes may be OK on stretches leading to and from bus depots, or on stretches where the frequency is higher than say a bus every 15 seconds, on regular roads, they are totally ill-advised.

Rather than dedicated lanes, total ban on private vehicles (meaning - vehicles other than buses, taxi's and auto's) on select stretches, during peak hours, would any day be preferable.

The idea of the auto lanes on arterial roads was, in the first place, to segregate slow moving traffic. The purpose will be better achieved by banning slow moving traffic altogether on these roads, and confining them to the non-arterial roads. Eventually, however, it would be best if auto's are gradually phased out of the city roads over a couple of years, and replaced by four-wheeler taxi's, by incentivising the process.

Nobel cause

2007-11-22T03:33:00.000-08:00

text of the letter sent to the press:

Dr Rajendra Pachauri, the Chairman of the Nobel Laureate, IPCC, when asked to comment on the TATA '1- lakh car' project, in the context of the adverse remarks made by the famed economist, Thomas Friedman, expressed his wish that TATA's would simultaneously get into public bus transport services. And, TATA's being TATA's would be happy to do so, provided the government facilitated their entry. Also, so would the house of TVS, who anyway started off as public bus service providers in the city of Madurai, but had to give it up because of nationalisation during emergency. The liberalisation thereafter has been token at best, leading to a situation where the organised sector would rather keep away totally, leaving it all in the hands of the 'blue-line' kind of operators, apart from the only slightly better government agencies, with disastrous consequences.

The sad irony however is that whereas it is in vital infrastructure sectors such as public bus transport services that the country so desperately needs the efficiencies of the organised sector players like TATA's and TVS's, in order to contain the ever increasing damage to the environment apart from the cluttering of the cities, they have willy-nilly landed up doing exactly the opposite, by producing more and more cars and motor-bikes.

The Nobel prize bestows a responsibility upon Dr Pachauri to correct this anomaly.

development and greenery can co-exist

2007-11-20T03:02:00.000-08:00

Posting made in the local RWA yahoo-group in response to a mail denouncing protests against indiscriminate road-widening:

I am a member of the tree-lover group "Hasiru Usiru", the term literally meaning 'green alone is life'. While admittedly there are a number of youngsters in the group who are idealistic and hold extreme views, I have been trying to lend a voice of moderation to the on-going debates amongst them.

In fact, even as the 80 ft road was being widened, I had myself interacted with the BMP officials to identify a number of trees which needed to be removed (though, some of them still remain, for reasons not too clear) even while trying to prevent removal and chopping of trees in the indiscriminate fashion that the contractor was going about.

Development and greenery can co-exist, atleast to a great extent, is what I would like to believe.

In that respect, I totally agree with Maj Kapur when he says that there's no point widening a road at one end when you have no clue as to how to tackle the problem at the other end of the very same road. Also, years after widening, you can't bother to have the electric poles shifted out to the edges. Even in the case of the majestic Banyan tree that once stood at the Aishwarya junction, over the chopping of which Zafar Futehally (the famed naturalist in whose exalted company we Koramangalites are fortunate to live) shed quite a few tears, the entire stump remained in place for over two years, making a total mockery of the stated purpose of road widening.

As such, we need to say no to the 'bits & pieces' efforts of the BMP lot so that they are forced to come up with more comprehensive solutions, if not for the city as a whole, atleast for the same stretch of road.

Ultimately, again, as I have been repeatedly stating, the solution lies not just in widening roads, but in bringing about a check in the usage of personalised forms of transport. For this, people have to learn to start using public transport services, and the government has to facilitate that.

blue-line tragedy

2007-10-13T01:13:00.000-07:00

text of the letter sent to Times of India:

I refer to the editorial, specifically the following excerpts, published in your columns on the 9th instant under the caption 'Get Moving'.

"It (the Delhi government) invited big companies to run the city’s buses, but no one seems keen. It is not hard to understand why.

Entities used to abiding by a framework of rules will rather not deal with a regime where transport authorities, policemen and politicians call the shots and make a quick rupee. For their rent-seeking behaviour, the city incurs a huge cost.

The government’s role as facilitator and regulator will have to change for bona fide players to show interest. It should allow private players operational freedom while ensuring that they observe traffic and every other norm. In cities that have a decent transport system anywhere in the world, commuters, government and transporters all understand the economic benefits of public order. In India, they don’t."

Yes, Sir, very clearly therein lies the problem. Rather than the blueline operators, it is the governments, whose policies perpetuate such situations, that have blood all over their hands.

The situation in Bangalore is different only to the extent that the speeds get automatically restricted due to the severe congestion. Not surprisingly, a survey by a leading T V channel has picked out Bangalore as the worst city to drive in.

emancipation from frauds

2007-09-18T23:03:00.000-07:00

text of the letter sent to the Times of India:

I refer to the report captioned "fraud-hit KSRTC decides to outsource accident claims" reported in your columns on Saturday, the 15th Sept.

What has been discovered is just one scam in one accident-claims wing. In a monopoly government organisation, like the KSRTC, it is inevitable that there will be many such scams flourishing simultaneously in many of its wings. The only lasting solution lies in having effective competition from reputed private corporates, which will then push the KSRTC into professionalising in order to survive. And, if they can meet the challenge, they too will flourish, like we have seen in the case of Indian Airlines, and if they can't, the world would be better off without them.

an exchange with Ms K

2007-08-28T21:40:00.000-07:00

Hi Ms K

I am not asking BMTC to be privatised. I am asking for BMTC's monopoly regime to be dismantled by facilitating entry of reputed Corporate players into public bus transport services sector, in competition with BMTC, even if on a field slightly sloped favouring BMTC, all duly regulated (not controlled) by a properly constituted agency.

As the co-Chairman of BMTC's Commuter Comfort Task Force, I had also made numerous suggestions. They are interested only to the extent of the publicity that it gets them, and after that, it's business as usual.

Competition and competition alone can change things. And, Madame, the cost of its inefficiency and incapacity is huge on the city, and particularly on the urban poor whose cause you otherwise so admirably represent.

Regards, Muralidhar Rao

On 8/23/07, Ms K wrote:

Hi Murali

Recently BMTC announced that it would give all its employees a share in the holdings and allow ordinary people also to buy BMTC shares. I think this is a better move than privatisation - a move towards public-people-partnership rather than public-private-partnership.

You were on BMTC's task-force. You must have heard of Mr. Parameswaran's ideas about feeder and trunk route systems to make BMTC buses quick and reliable. According to his plan one could get a bus from any point every five minutes. With this plan, buses would not come empty one behind the other or not come at all for hours together as is happening now. What's wrong with this idea? Why not support it?

Regards, K

On 8/23/07, Muralidhar Rao wrote:

Hi Ms K

I read the 'urban transport policy' document through and through. It substantiates the points I have been repeatedly making, particularly at para's 23, 24, 53, & 54.

More pertinently, the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Government of India, had long before displayed a report on 'Bus Transport Systems' on its website (www.petroleum.nic.in/ch_15.pdf), salient excerpts from which are re-produced below:

1) Promoting public bus transport should be viewed as a priority in any strategy to improve urban road traffic and in controlling air pollution from automobiles. The country can ill afford the luxury of unchecked growth of private vehicle population. The costs to the country's economy in terms of higher fuel consumption and to the society in terms of health are significant enough to warrant urgent action.
2) Clearly, there is a strong case for promoting private enterprise in meeting transport needs in urban areas.
3) An aspect of public policy that impacts on provision and expansion of public transport either by state owned utilities or by private entrepreneurs, relates to the unviable fare structures imposed by the authority.
4) With improved efficiency, the fare structure can continue to remain low while still providing for overall viability of the operations.

You want a good public bus transport system, and you want the government monopoly BMTC to provide it. For any monopoly to do a good job is like asking for the moon, and for a govt monopoly to do it is like asking for the entire galaxy. Also, no point bringing in the private sector and imposing all kinds of restrictions on it - the result will be Delhi's notorious BLUE-LINE. Unless we change our mind-set over such issues, we will remain stuck for viable solutions, and the Revanna's will rule the roost.

Perhaps you should facilitate Oberoi's getting into providing efficient, non-polluting and cost-effective public bus services before venturing into cleaning up our lakes.

Muralidhar Rao

unshackling the bus transport services sector

2007-08-23T00:38:00.000-07:00

text of the letter sent to the press:

Finally, one government, that of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, has realised that as important an infrastructure sector service as 'public bus transport' cannot continue to remain in the hands of the un-organised sector, and has instead to be served by the organised sector. Towards this, the government has now sent out notices inviting EOP (expression of interest) from companies, co-op societies, etc for operating stage-carriage services. And, one of the stipulations is that they should come in with a minimum fleet size of 100 buses.

The NCT transport department needs to be complimented for taking this bold step. But, this is only the first step, and a few more need to be taken if the intended results are to be achieved. They are freedom to choose the routes, and freedom to fix fares. Though, initially, this may lead to a bit of a confusion, within months, things will sort themselves out, and a large part of the traffic problems as well as many of the other problems will also get sorted out. And, very likely you will also have a fare regime lower than that of the DTC, even.

Simultaneously, the government could also think of introducing the congestion tax in the CBDs, maybe in phases.

party to the loot

2007-06-16T05:31:00.000-07:00

text of the letter sent to the Indian Express:

I refer to the report captioned "Metro rail: Officials face the music" in your columns today.

Upto as recently as just some ten years back, we were totally at the mercy of monopoly government service providers like BSNL, Indian Airlines, Posts & Telegraph, Doordarshan, the cartelised banks and insurance companies. With the facilitation of entry of private players into these sectors, the scenarios transformed in real quick time benefiting everyone concerned, except a handful of racketeers.

In very much the same way, the public bus transport services can also get transformed, in a matter of months, if the state governments facilitate entry of organised sector players like TVS into the sector to compete with the present-day government monopoly players, viz BMTC and the SRTC's. What is required is a Praful Patel like approach on the part of the state transport minister. Such a development, alongwith a few policy measures disincentivising usage of personalised forms of transport, can mitigate the city traffic problems to a large extent. And, thereafter, if necessary, one can look at the METRO, this being a very costly option.

The politicians will naturally go for the costliest of options, since the mega projects involved mean mega kick-backs. But, when the NGO's, who so vociferously voice their opposition to the METRO, simultaneously refuse to support the entry of the private sector into the field, aren't they willy-nilly playing into the hands of the politicians, and thereby guilty of acquiescing in the loot?

cheaper commuting

2007-04-12T03:28:00.000-07:00

text of the letter sent to Times of India:

I refer to the report in your columns yesterday (9th April) under the caption 'BMTC cheapest mode of transport', supposedly based on study conducted by our city traffic police. That the bus is the cheapest mode of public transport has been established from long, and all relevant information in this regard has also been available from long on the web-site of the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, www.pteroleum.nic.in/ch_15.pdf.

Now, what is even more significant is the strong recommendation made by the Ministry for promotion of competition from private sector in order to keep the fares low and improve services. If the city traffic police is really keen on getting a grip on the traffic scenario, clearly, that is what they need to pursue.

towards more objective policing

2007-04-08T21:18:00.000-07:00

text of the letter sent to the Indian Express:

I refer to the front page report in your columns today under the caption 'violence after youth runover'. The report further goes on to state that the youth was riding his two-wheeler on the wrong side of the road.

Now, this is the kind of menace that every law-abiding road user is faced with day-in and day-out, and is quite the biggest nightmare for him. And, one expected that the traffic cops were given those fancy bikes essentially to chase such offenders, and bring them to book sufficiently heavily so that they don't ever dare to repeat them. Instead, what we see is the 'speed cops' literally ambushing two-wheeler riders here and there, and booking them largely for minor offences, apparently with just the 'revenue' targets in mind.

Do we need repeats of such incidents before our cops learn to become more objective in their approaches?

a dissenting voice

2007-03-18T00:39:00.000-07:00

I had forwarded the text of my earlier posting titled 'towards people friendly politics', essentially demanding competition in bus transport services, to a few opinion leaders in the city, to which a certain Mr MT responded as below:

Dear Murali,

I respect your views and regard for the private sector. I have been an employee in both sectors, govt and private. I have seen the best and worst of both. Whether it is our country or any other, people in both sectors are indigenous to the country concerned. The private sector is generally driven by the "profit motive" of the owners. Both sectors have as much corruption as possible depending on the country. In some countries, like USA or UK, they get caught and punished. ENRON, Arthur Anderson, World Tel etc were all highly reputed private companies till they were caught and exposed. Nearer home, we have the Harshad Mehtas and Parekhs of the stock market, the Ritu Singhs and Rais [Usha Rectifier] of the private companies and a host of others.

Specifically, with regard to buses, if you take a trip from, say, Bangalore to Hyderabad, once by a private bus and once by a Govt [APRTC or KSRTC] bus, you would see the difference. The private buses have the same crew for the entire journey, against all norms of caution and accident prevention. The Govt buses change the crew every two hours!

Recently there was a news item that people are turning to Govt buses for longer journeys.

I always quote the example of Govt run education institutions, our very own IITs, IIMs and Central Schools. How and why are they considered good. Name one engineering or management college that have earned a similar reputation.

Why then this perception that private is efficient and public is not. There are good and bad in both sectors. Some public service is needed to cater to certain vulnerable sections of society with subsidized costs.

I hope we could agree to disagree, if you are still unconvinced. One way of convincing yourself would be to check out as to how much public money is locked in failed private companies and how they have got away with it, here and in all other countries. [Hyundai's Chairman is in jail today for fraud.]

Regards, MT

My reply

Dear Mr MT

The problem all along has been the government's 'license-permit raaj/ regime'. My first exposure to TVS was as the bus service provider in the city of Madurai. During the emergency, the government nationalised bus services, and TVS was forced to withdraw from the scene altogether. Later, when the government realised that they couldn't manage things themselves, they slowly started 'permit'ting private operations, but with all kinds of conditions imposed on them. This was the beginning of the notorious 'license-permit raaj', with the babu's making all the decisions on what is good for the country and what is not, and twisting and turning the rules to suit their narrow ends. The position has changed very little even till date, particularly in the bus transport services sector. Under such a regime, the TVS's have chosen to keep away, and the Sharma (travels) types, who know how to play ball with the babu's, are together making hay, but at the cost of the 'aam aadmi'. Also, these are the types who are not too bothered about things like brand value, image, etc, and readily resort to all kinds of shortcuts, and short-changings, earning the private sector a bad name in the process. If the unnecessary controls are withdrawn, TVS (and similar reputed business houses) will be happy to come on to scene with huge investments and provide the much needed real and healthy competition to the KSRTC/ BMTC to the benefit of all concerned. In fact, it is in these basic and vital infrastructure areas that their presence is very badly needed in the country today. Instead, they are left to just manufacturing motorbikes and auto components (because there are not that many hindrances from the government there), and in a way contributing to the clutter on our roads. I would hold those opposing the entry of these Corporates into these areas even more guilty of the charge.

Like somebody has very correctly said, every business has to take into account the three E's - Economy, Equity, & Environment, while carrying on their operations. So, first and foremost, they have to be profitable. Yes, the private sector is in it very much for the profits! And, profit-making, I thought, was no longer considered a dirty word, not even in Kolkata; profiteering - may be. And, that's where you need effective competition. I am surprised I am having to repeat these fundamentals!

To the list of excellent companies/ institutions in the government sector that you have listed, I could add the names of BEL, NTPC, etc. But, these are far and few between, and unless they also gear themselves to the changed global scenario, they will also face problems. More than working for any them, I have had the privilege of being a major supplier to the likes of BHEL, NGEF, ABB, Crompton Greaves, ALSTOM, etc, in both the public as well as the private sector, which is when you get the proper business perspective. The Rai's, Ambani's etc have indeed played around and amassed wealth. But, that's what happens when you have the 'control-permit raaj'. Also, those are insignificant compared to the money locked up in failed/ loss-making government undertakings. Whereas in the private sector, these cannot go on for too long, in the case of the government set-ups, it is indefinite, bleeding the exchequer for decades together. Further, it is largely the government financial institutions/ banks that the Rai’s of this world have duped, because of their incompetence, and not say an ICICI bank, proving the point once again. With the license-permit raaj more or less dismantled now in many of the sectors, the players are beginning to play the game according to the rules, and things are looking up. But, like I have stated earlier, in key infrastructure areas like public bus transport, power distribution, etc, unfortunately, it is either the Sharma's, or the equally bad KSRTC/ BMTC, BESCOM, etc that rule the roost.

As reputed as the IIT’s, IIM’s, Central schools, etc have been the numerous Christian Missionary schools and institutions like St John’s Medical College, CMC, Vellore, etc; the Manipal group of institutions; and lately, the NPS, DPS, etc. And, it was a product of the very first batch of the International Business School, in Hyderabad, promoted by a consortium of business houses, that got placed at the highest salary level compared to any other business school, including the IIM’s, last year.

For over 50 years since independence, the country’s Socialistic policies turned the entire population into babu’s, almost wiping out entrepreneurship altogether. If it still survived, it tells a lot about the tenacity of some of our business communities, like the Marwaris, the Parsis, the Punjabi’s, the Sindhi’s, the Konkana’s (Pais of Manipal), the Chettiars, the Mopla’s (of Malabar), to name just a few. They battled on despite the many obstacle placed before them by the government, quite often by crook than by hook, when it became a question of survival. Now, with liberalization, the latent energy is just exploding, and our enterprises are becoming world leaders in each and every field - of course, where liberalization has happened. Unfortunately, that has still to happen in the most vital areas of infrastructure.

If we are to provide the basic necessities to the millions of our under-privileged brethren, and thereafter, attempt to take on the world, it has to come through more and more entrepreneurship, and the government's role should be that of the facilitator and regulator (also to factor in the other two E's, referred to earlier), for which an essential requirement is that it pulls out of being a player also.

Regards, Muralidhar Rao

unpardonable chaos creation

2007-03-16T03:23:00.000-07:00

Text of the letter sent to The New Indian Express:

I refer to the report in your City Express columns on the 12th instant under the caption 'Why the perpetual chaos on Hosur road?'.

Now, the fact of the matter is that there already exists the near world-class BMIC expressway covering the entire segment between Hosur road and Tumkur road, with only a few small stretches remaining to be connected. And, if this is done, the chaos not only on Hosur road, but along the entire segment, will get sorted out automatically. But, the government will not allow it inspite of the Supreme Court ordering it to do so repeatedly. Each time the court passes an order, the government comes up with some new obstacle or the other, because the connected ruling politicians feel that they have not got their entire pound of flesh. And, then they come up with the extremely costly and totally disastrous solutions like the elevated highway, which, for all the added disruptions caused, may one day end up like the Richmond road fly-over.

A government that exists only to perpetuate the vested interests of its inner few, and is oblivious to the miseries it adds to the lives of the common man, in this process, is best got ridden of fast.

honking menace

2007-03-08T20:27:00.000-08:00

text of the letter sent to the press:

A honk should be to convey "caution, you may be in my way", or "please allow me to pass" as compared to "get out of my way" that the call centre vehicle drivers seem to want to convey. And, they should be in short bursts, where required, rather than the continuous blasts that these drivers tend to resort to. As such, while we are beginning to see the effects of the genuine training efforts on the part of atleast some of the fleet managers, this particular aspect about honking does not appear to have drawn enough attention.

The inevitable ill effects of economic growth could get a lot mitigated if a bit more attention is given to such details.

2007-03-02T01:03:00.000-08:00

Dear Murali,

I respect your views and regard for the private sector. I have been an employee in both sectors, govt and private. I have seen the best and worst of both. Whether it is our country or any other, people in both sectors are indigenous to the country concerned. The private sector is generally driven by the "profit motive" of the owners. Both sectors have as much corruption as possible depending on the country. In some countries, like USA or UK, they get caught and punished. ENRON, Arthur Anderson, World Tel etc were all highly reputed private companies till they were caught and exposed. Nearer home, we have the Harshad Mehtas and Parekhs of the stock market, the Ritu Singhs and Rais [Usha Rectifier] of the private companies and a host of others.

Specifically, with regard to buses, if you take a trip from, say, Bangalore to Hyderabad, once by a private bus and once by a Govt [APRTC or KSRTC] bus, you would see the difference. The private buses have the same crew for the entire journey, against all norms of caution and accident prevention. The Govt buses change the crew every two hours!

Recently there was a news item that people are turning to Govt buses for longer journeys.

I always quote the example of Govt run education institutions, our very own IITs, IIMs and Central Schools. How and why are they considered good. Name one engineering or management college that have earned a similar reputation.

Why then this perception that private is efficient and public is not. There are good and bad in both sectors. Some public service is needed to cater to certain vulnerable sections of society with subsidized costs.

I hope we could agree to disagree, if you are still unconvinced. One way of convincing yourself would be to check out as to how much public money is locked in failed private companies and how they have got away with it, here and in all other countries. [Hyundai's Chairman is in jail today for fraud.]

Regards, MT

My reply

Dear Mr MT

Regards, Muralidhar Rao

towards people friendly politics

2007-02-21T07:27:00.000-08:00

text of the letter sent to the Indian Express:

I refer to the report captioned 'KSRTC needs Rs 2,000/- crores to upgrade facilities' published in your columns on the 21st instant.

Now, I can't see any earthly reason why the government should be investing such a huge amount in KSRTC when the private sector can bring in far more funds to this vital infrastructure sector, as also provide far better services, very much as it has done in the case of aviation, telephony, banking, insurance, etc, if the government just facilitates the process. To begin with, the government could repeal archaic laws like the Contract Carriage Act, and license all services uniformly as bus services, allowing them to operate on routes and at fare levels of their choice, charging annual license fees on the basis of just the vehicle floor area. Within months, you will see the transformation, with every corner of the state well connected with every kind of service, ranging from 'Kingfisher' levels to 'Air Deccan', with the Air Deccan fare levels being far lower than that being charged currently by the ordinary KSRTC services. To cope with the competition, the KSRTC can be incorporated into a company (after reverting all the non-movable assets in its possession to the local municipal bodies), with the staff and labour holding substantial stake in it, and a nominal license fee concession being allowed for some first three years.

The same goes for the city services also.

There cannot be a more people friendly gesture from the government. All that is required is the political will.

KSRTC's tom-tommings

2007-02-12T02:17:00.000-08:00

text of the letter sent to Times of India:

I refer to the report captioned 'cash registers ring at KSRTC office' in your columns on the 10th Feb.

While doubtless the KSRTC (as well as the BMTC) services have improved considerably of late, comparing them against the services provided by the private players would be rather unfair, operating as these are on a playing field sloped totally against them. Now, almost all the private players are licensed as 'contract carriages', 'tourist carriages', etc ( but never as stage carriages - the term used in the RTO parlance for regular bus operations), which imposes all kinds of restrictions on them. If one were to abide by the rules framed thereunder, one can't make any money, and consequently, the rules are observed more in breach than compliance, by the 'mafioso' ( I would have liked to use a less incriminating word) who alone dare to venture into the fray. The mafioso know how to play the game, while simultaneously keeping the RTO and the various other government officials involved all very happy, as also the KSRTC trade unionists. The respectable business houses however refuse to enter into this minefield, making for a near monopoly scenario for the KSRTC, which they then tom-tom about making profits out of. The real test for KSRTC/ BMTC will be when thay have to compete against TATA's, TVS, etc, and, in today's liberalised world, there is absolutely no reason why the citizens should be denied the benefits deriving from effective competition on level a playing field involving such players.

Even as enormous benefits have resulted to everyone concerned out of reforms in so many other sectors, it is unfortunate that the government refuses to look at proper reforms in as key an infra-structure sector as the public bus transport services sector.

de-complicating issues

2007-01-12T02:45:00.000-08:00

text of letter sent to press:

The Ulsoor lake parking scheme, Malleswaram underpass, National College flyover, and all such issues emanate out of one common problem - too many vehicles being added on (at close to 1,000 a day) to the city roads, far in excess of their carrying capacity. And, the public, while grudgingly beginning to accept that this needs to be checked, simultaneously comes up with the argument that the public transport services are inadequate, in the process helping to perpetuate the typical chicken and egg situation. While extremely expensive options, like the METRO / MONO rail, etc are being bandied about by all and sundry, nobody even wants to think of professionalised bus services, which essentially means competition for the BMTC from the private sector, as the simple and staright-forward answer.

building awareness

2006-12-05T21:31:00.000-08:00

At the instance of a friend, I have recently been taking lectures, as part of an awareness building programme, for 10th standard students of a school, on the outskirts of the city, comprising mostly children from the poorer sections of society.

After making a general assessment of their current awareness levels, I asked them to look at what their immediate problems, of a general nature, were, as also to think up what the possible solutions could be. Amongst the prominent ones listed out was BMTC’s poor services. As to the solutions, all they could come up with was that BMTC should improve.

I then asked them if they knew of the private service providers in the airlines services sector. They readily came up with names like ‘Kingfisher’, ‘Air Deccan’, etc. I then went on to tell them that until some ten years back, the government-owned IA (now Indian) had a monopoly over this sector, and that, as a result of the competition, IA is now beginning to lose its dominant position. But, overall, the services had improved considerably, and the fares had become a lot more affordable, even to the common man, resulting in a tremendous boost to the economy. So, I asked them if they would consider this a positive development. Many of them expressed reservations on account of the government player losing out to competition. I then went on to ask them if they would recommend reversal of the policy so that the government player could once again have the monopoly. It was then that the message went home to them, and one of them took bold to ask why the private sector was not there in the bus services sector also. I told them to raise the question with their elected representative.

Moral of the story: We have got so much used to the ‘mai-baap culture’ of government providing everything that we are not even prepared to look beyond to see what else can be. And, particularly in key infrastructure services sectors like airlines, public bus transport, power supply, etc, it is not the interest of a government player that is important. What is paramount, on the other hand, is what can take the sector to its fullest potential.

the millionth convert

2006-11-09T08:42:00.000-08:00

text of the letter sent to the Editor, Times of India, Bangalore

I refer to the particular quote "Why can't there be better bus connectivity? I have now been converted from a die-hard public transport fan to one who will add to the vehicular population of the city" by your reader, Ms Raji Sunderkrishnan, in your 'MY TIMES, MY CITY' columns today.

Yes, the incapacity of the government-run monopoly operator, BMTC, is plainly to blame for this growing tendency, and the consequent worsening of the already bad city traffic scenario. Is the government ever going to wake up?

moribund bus transport sector

2006-11-08T03:01:00.000-08:00

Not a day passes without some report or the other appearing in the press about the BMTC - whether it's the introduction of the green (yesterday, I noticed a half empty one, even as the regular buses plying alongside were packed beyond capacity), pink, or the blue buses, or the latest - the 10% concession for the senior citizens. But, what good are all these, unless they can provide good connectivity, and can be relied upon to take you from place to place on time? In that respect, the BMTC is not faring any better, and consequently, people are having to become more and more dependent on individualised forms of transport, aggravating the ever-worsening city traffic scenario.

While admittedly there are factors that contribute to this, which are beyond BMTC's control, a lot of it is also resulting from its monopoly status.

Even as enormous benefits have resulted to everyone concerned out of reforms in so many other sectors, it is unfortunate that the government refuses to look at proper reforms in as key an infra-structure sector as the public bus transport services sector.

Public Bus Transport Service - reforms required

2006-09-03T22:30:00.000-07:00

STATE PUBLIC BUS TRANSPORT POLICY – draft proposal

1) Government to use every means to encourage use of public bus transport services, particularly in cities.
2) Movement of public bus transport vehicles to be given top priority, particularly in cities. Traffic authorities to ensure this.
3) Public bus transport sector to be opened out totally, for open competition between various players, on a level playing field, subject to concessions noted below.
4) Classifications such as stage carriages, contract carriages, maxi cabs, etc to be withdrawn, and annual license fees charged on the basis of the vehicle floor area.
5) Service providers to be totally free to adopt their own fare tables. There are to be no restrictions on fares, whatsoever.
6) Service providers to be free to choose the routes they wish to operate on, as also the schedules. RTO to be empowered to impose restrictions only in the case of overcrowding of routes/roads.
7) All bus stands to be taken over and run (or better still - leased out to professional contractors) by local bodies, like BMP, City Corporations, Municipalities, etc, making the facilities available to all service providers against user charges.
8) Public bus transport vehicles to be maintained in exacting road-worthy condition. No public bus transport vehicle to be more than 10 years old.
9) Policing of public bus transport vehicles to be made very strict, with heavy penalties being levied in cases of offences like over-speeding, rash & negligent driving, drunken driving, over-loading, etc.
10) An efficient bus transport system (with government and private players operating in open competition) to form the backbone of the public transport system. In large cities, these to be supplemented by METRO rail as the situation warrants.
Notes:
a) KSRTC (and its subsidiaries) and BMTC may be incorporated into companies, with employees holding substantial stake.
b) KSRTC (and its subsidiaries) and BMTC may be allowed 100% concession on annual license fee for their vehicles for a period of 3 years (from the date of the policy coming into effect), and 50% concession for the next two years, and 25% concession thereafter.
c) Buses run by co-operative societies may be allowed 25% concession on annual license fees.

Likely scenario resulting at the end of 3 to 6 months of implementation of policy:

1) Corporates like TVS, Ashok Leyland, etc, alongside the present contract-carriage operators like Blueline, VRL, Sharma Transports, KPN, etc, apart from co-operatives like those formed by ex-servicemen, likely to come on the scene with hundreds of buses, catering to all kinds and classes of demand.
2) The resulting competition will automatically drive the different service providers to come up with innovative schemes of attracting more and more people to switch over to the use of the buses rather than relying on their individual vehicles.
3) At the lower end, you will have the ‘Janata’ services, stopping at all bus stops enroute, and charging the barest minimum (which in all possibility will be much lower than BMTC’s present charges).
4) At the upper end, you will have the A/C deluxe services (possibly with broad, reclining seats, newspapers & magazines for reading, etc) catering to corporate executives, and operating from say Whitefield to Residency road, with just some 5 stops in-between. These buses may also cater to students of say Bishop Cottons School, possibly with a 25% concession being offered to them.
5) In between, you will have a wide spectrum of services, with each service provider making known his USP through the local media.
6) Even within a Jayanagar or a Indiranagar, you will have mini-buses operating in given circuits, catering to the local shopping and other needs of the residents.
7) The usage of two-wheelers and cars will reduce drastically, atleast for commuting, leading to

de-cluttering of city roads, thereby providing room for speedy movement of buses,
reduction of air pollution with lower per capita consumption of fuel,
spread of population from city centres to out-lying areas due to ready availability of cheap and efficient means of transport,
promotion of the healthy practice of walking atleast to & from the bus stops,
an appreciable drop in the monthly family transport budget.

8) In the rural areas also, the demand for good public transport will lead to entrepreneurs / co-operatives coming forward to meet it, and healthy competition will ensure efficient and cheap services.

In this connection, a reference is made to the report on ‘Bus Transport Systems’ displayed on the website of the Union Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (www.petroleum.nic.in/ch_15.pdf), salient excerpts from which are listed below, for a ready reference:

a) Promoting public bus transport should be viewed as a priority in any strategy to improve urban road traffic and in controlling air pollution from automobiles. The country can ill afford the luxury of unchecked growth of private vehicle population. The costs to the country’s economy in terms of higher fuel consumption and to the society in terms of health are significant enough to warrant urgent action.
b) Clearly, there is a strong case for promoting private enterprise in meeting transport needs in urban areas.
An aspect of public policy that impacts on provision and expansion of public transport either by state owned utilities or by private entrepreneurs, relates to the unviable fare structures imposed by the authority.
c) With improved efficiency, the fare structure can continue to remain low while still providing for overall viability of the operations.

As will be noticed, the ‘policy’ enunciated above takes into account all these factors.

Blue-print and Vision

2006-09-03T22:17:00.000-07:00

NAGARIK’s blue-print for improving the Bangalore traffic scene (March ’96)

1) Introduce more buses (since BTS is near-bankrupt, bring-in the private sector to compete with the BTS)
2) Discourage use of private vehicles
to
-provide room for more (public transport) buses,
-reduce fuel consumption (saving foreign exchange), and consequently pollution,
-de-clutter the roads,
-make people walk atleast upto the bus-stands, thereby exercising their bodies that bit.
by
- increasing road tax
- introducing ‘pedestrians only’ zones in city centres, like has been done in Commercial Street (Contractors may be allowed to operate slow-moving, mini-buses for people to shuttle between the parking lot and the shopping areas)
- making it difficult to find parking spaces (particularly in city centres – the proposed multi-storied parking lots are totally ill-conceived)
- restricting plying of private vehicles on the main city arteries like the Residency Road, St Mark’s Road, Old Madras Road (between Trinity Jn and Adarsh Theatre), etc, between 9AM & 10.30AM, and 5PM & 7PM.

3) Licence more taxies (four wheeler) in place of auto-rickshaws. (Auto-rickshaws, because of their high maneuverability, are a major traffic hazard)
4) Complete the inner and outer ring roads.
5) Shift all major wholesale markets (steel, vegetable, timber, etc) to well-planned areas outside the outer ring road.
6) Have large well-planned truck terminals also outside the outer ring road adjoining each highway.
7) Encourage cycling

to
- nurture an eco-friendly and healthy population
- reduce consumption of (imported) fuel oils
by
- making certain roads with ‘right of way for cycles’ criss-crossing the entire city

8) Encourage use of contract vans for school children

NAGARIK’S vision for Bangalore traffic scenario for the year 2000 (March ’96)

1) There will be a 6-lane outer ring road and a 4-lane inner ring road, with service roads on either sides, going all around the city.
2) The main radial arteries (namely Tumkur Road, Bellary Road, Hennur Road, Old Madras Road, Varthur Road, Sarjapur Road, Hosur Road, Kanakapura Road, Mysore Road, and Magadi Road) will also be widened into 6-lane highways facilitating faster movements of vehicles into and out of the city centre. This will also result in lateral growth of the city, reducing the pressure on the overburdened roads and utility systems existing in the inner city. The BDA / BMRDA would facilitate the growth of fully self-contained satellite townships (with actual work being done by private agencies) outside a 10 km wide green belt (forest land) beyond the outer ring road.
3) At the point of intersection of the ring roads with the main radial arteries there will be fly-overs.
4) All major wholesale markets (steel, vegetable, timber, grain, etc) will have been shifted to well-planned, spacious locations outside the outer ring road.
5) Large truck terminals with all requisite amenities will be located outside the outer ring road along each highway.
6) Heavy duty trucks will not be allowed within the outer ring road limits, except with special permissions.
7) All movement of goods within the outer ring road will be by LCVs.
8) An efficient bus transport system (with public and private agencies/companies operating in open competition) will form the backbone of the public transport system.
9) Particularly within the inner ring road, plying of buses, vans, taxis (cars as against auto-rickshaws) will be encouraged and facilitated, while
10) Use of personalised means of transport, particularly cars, will be discouraged, by

- suitable road tax levies
- restricting entry of private cars on certain roads during peak hours
- making parking difficult and costly

11) The public transport system will be supplemented by the proposed RTPS / metro system.