Mumbai: The city’s multiple modes of public transport, including suburban railway, buses, Metro Railway, Monorail and taxis, should be run by a single authority to ensure efficiency, says a report by the State Urban Development Department (UDD). It should be accessible to commuters via a single contactless card, the UDD report said.
The report proposing multimodal integration of public transport was put together by a team of UDD officers based on their study of transport systems in Singapore and the South Korean capital, Seoul. The team had visited these cities on a World Bank-funded tour to study urban transport initiatives. The Leaders in Urban Transport and Planning (LUTP-6) study tour, held from March 4-10, was organised by the Ahmedabad-based CEPT University, Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and the World Bank.
Among the 20 suggestions in the report is one which seeks the Metro and suburban railway network be equipped with buses for first- and last-mile connectivity. It also proposed a contactless card fare system, calculated on the basis of distance covered and not the mode used. This card should be used for all public transport, including taxis, the report said.
Other suggestions included giving passengers the option to convert credit and debit cards to multi-utility cards for use in public transport, promoting sharing bicycles at CST and Churchgate stations, covered walkways, a command and control centre for traffic management, major government investment in municipal bus transport in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and dedicated bus lanes on major thoroughfares in metro cities. It also called for the system to be convenient for the differently-abled.
Parking policy
The report proposed that Mumbai Port Trust land be used for parking lots, and the city’s central business district should be accessible only by public transport. It has also advocated scrapping of private vehicles every 10 years.
It sought a comprehensive parking policy with higher charges, more penalties and use of parking spaces available with housing societies, malls, hotels and hospitals. It called for centralised information on area-wise parking, and for honking to be made a penal offence.
To reduce vehicle numbers, it suggested congestion charges and entitlement certificates. The report said: “It is worthwhile to note that both countries faced similar problems as India faces today. However, these countries have through innovation, discipline and use of cutting-edge technology improved the urban transport scenario by making it accessible, affordable and acceptable. These countries have been successful in removing the stigma from public transport.”
