New bus routes to minimise travel time and cost for commuters and maximise transportation system capacity for the service providers will soon become a reality in Kozhikode city.
The Department of Town and Country Planning, which has worked out the draft plan, has also proposed terminals at Cheruvannur in the south, Elathur in the north, Medical College in the east and Palayam at the centre of the city. However, it is believed that the network with three terminals performs better than a network with four terminals.
“Now we are awaiting the approval of the State government. After the vetting process, the department plans to conduct a workshop for all stakeholders before March 31. The report will then go to the Regional Transport Authority chaired by the Collector, which can decide on the new routes,” said K.V. Abdul Malik, Regional Town Planner.
As of now, the buses operate service in an unscientific manner as the charting of bus routes had evolved organically from the 1960s and ’70s. Thus, the existing bus routes lacked proper design, caused inconvenience in terms of location of bus stops and failed to serve key destinations. Other major problems include fear of crime at stations and within buses, and poor quality of infrastructure.
Private buses from Palayam bus stand operate services to suburban and nearby towns while others start from the mofussil stand on the Indira Gandhi road. The KSRTC also has its own bus station on Mavoor Road that conducts regular services to different districts and destinations in neighbouring States.
The Department of Civil Engineering at the National Institute of Technology, Calicut (NIT-C) has designed the draft plan after a detailed and methodical study of travel demand for the urban area.
It 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.
The study revealed that only 35% of the road users utilise bus as their mode of travel. So the routes have to be redesigned based on the characteristics of the city.
Route network design, frequency setting, timetable development, vehicle scheduling, and crew scheduling have been taken into consideration for public transit service for running an efficient bus transportation network, Mr. Malik said.
