In a bid to end the unscientific charting of bus routes in Kozhikode city, the Department of Civil Engineering at the National Institute of Technology, Calicut (NIT-C) in association with the Department of Town and Country Planning has come up with a draft plan after a detailed and methodical study of travel demand for the urban area.
Official sources said the existing bus routes lacked proper design, caused inconvenience in terms of location of bus stops and failed to serve key destinations. Fear of crime at stations and within buses, and poor quality of infrastructure were other major problems.
It was also found that only 35 per cent of road users utilise bus as their mode of travel.
The draft plan has proposed an efficient bus transportation system for Kozhikode urban area. A report submitted to the Chief Town Planner, State government, has identified the factors influencing bus route design, developed a methodology and software tool for the design of bus routes, designed bus routes based on developed methodology and assessed the performance of the network.
Characteristics of city
The routes have been formulated based on the characteristics of Kozhikode city. Five basic activities such as route network design, frequency setting, timetable development, vehicle scheduling, and crew scheduling have been taken into consideration for public transit service.
According to officials, the system has been designed such that it minimises travel time, cost and transfers for commuters, and maximises transportation system capacity for the service provider.
The study has suggested that terminals should be located at all three directions in the city and one at the centre, which is the central business district. The terminal stations have been proposed at Cheruvannur at south, Elathur at north, Medical College North at east and Palayam at centre.
However, it is believed that the network with three terminals performs better than a network with four terminals.
The three terminals are at Medical College North, Cheruvannur West and Elathur. Elathur would be the best location if only a single terminal is needed. In case two terminals are needed, the best locations would be Elathur and Cheruvannur West.
For a city like Kozhikode, there is no need for a terminal at centre since the length of a route from the terminal to all the zones is between 2km and 10km.
