The Hindu : New Delhi News : “BRT a necessity for all cities”

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Saturday, Dec 06, 2008
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New Delhi

“BRT a necessity for all cities”

Staff Reporter

Delhi to have 409 km of it, says Union Minister Ajay Maken

“BRT much cheaper than Metro”
Emphasis on “more people, not vehicles”

NEW DELHI: With the urban population set to double in the next 25 years, Union Minister of State for Urban Development Ajay Maken said on Friday that the much talked about Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system is a must for all cities as it is their future. In case of Delhi, too, where the system has experienced a lot of teething troubles, 409 km of route has been envisaged at a cost of Rs.4,510 crore.

Delivering the valedictory address at the three-day Conference on Urban Mobility India-2008 at Pragati Maidan here, Mr. Maken said several lessons have been learnt from the BRT experience so far and improvements in designs for providing parking, better commuter accessibility and lane segregation would make it more acceptable. The BRT system is also much cheaper than the Metro railway whose Phase I and II would cover nearly 190 km at a cost of Rs.29,571 crore, he claimed.

The Minister said public transport had to be directly or indirectly supported or subsidised by the government and losses of the State Road Transport Corporation are not a burden as the expenses were actually huge economic multipliers and socially productive.

Mr. Maken said the Working Group on Urban Transport for the 11th Five Year Plan had calculated that Rs.132,590 crore would be needed in tune with the National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP) and of this only about Rs.26,000 crore was expected from private players. Therefore, commercial exploitation of land was a must and measures like zero excise and zero customs duty on public transport vehicles was needed. At the same time, a higher excise on personal vehicles should be levied to discourage their use.

Contending that public transport system cannot succeed on a single mode, Mr. Maken said as a way forward every city should have a mobility plan and there should be more equitable allocation of space on road.

Delhi, he said, illustrates both the problems and solutions of public transport. It had shown that only flyovers and increase in road width does not improve the traffic.

“Delhi has 21 per cent of its geographical area as roads which is the highest in Asian mega-cities. Also it has the largest number of flyovers and the largest coverage of Metro railway. But it still has the largest number of personalised vehicles. We have 7.5 lakh passengers travelling by Delhi Metro daily but this is still less than 40 per cent of the projected capacity,” the Minister said.

Noting that by 2026 at least five States would have more of urban population that rural, he said since all of them would have a high density of population in the urban areas, they would need more public transport to meet their needs. The NUTP, he said, lays emphasis on “more people, not vehicles”. Also, it calls for formulation of a city mobility plan at the time of an urban plan and suggests equitable allocation of road space with focus on multi-modal, integrated and seamless public transport.

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