With the Assembly elections round the corner, the political debate might have centred on freebies. But in most parts of the city, livelihood issues such as the increasing cost of transportation and the alarming level of traffic congestion are likely to have an impact on the poll outcome.
Traffic congestion is one of the main issues guiding voter preferences in at least three of the city's 16 constituencies – namely, Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni, Virugampakkam and T.Nagar.
Widening of existing roads, better pedestrian facilities and additional bus services are some of the common demands of residents across various constituencies.
Encroachments
T.Ravikumar, president of the All India Train and Bus passengers' Welfare Association, says that most of the residents would prefer more subsidies for public transport, instead of freebies. “Transportation costs have drastically shot up. The government must also go after encroachments, as official studies show only 40 per cent of the carriageway is available for vehicles.”
Much of the city's existing transportation network, both its few successes and also the many areas of concern, has strong roots in political decisions. For example, all the 300-odd share autorickshaws that ply in the city were given permits towards the end of the AIADMK rule in 1996.
Generally, successive AIADMK governments have favoured privatising urban transit. DMK governments on the other hand have focussed on greater State-control, the only exception being the long-overdue ‘open permit' scheme for autorickshaws, which was announced in 2010.
A retired senior Metropolitan Transport Corporation official says that since DMK workers' union within the State-owned Corporation was considered to be strong, share autorickshaw and mini-bus schemes were encouraged during the 2001-06 AIADMK rule.
The city's bus fleet actually dropped from about 2,800 to less than 2,500 in that period and most buses in the operational fleet were over seven years old. The AIADMK government's 2003-04 policy note talks about a “phased liberalisation of select routes, services and operations in the bus transport sector”. It goes on to state that there is a need to introduce competition to improve the efficiency of the transport system.
It is in this backdrop that the city's future growth and expansion, which will largely depend on the capacity of the transport infrastructure, must be viewed.
Urban governance
Raj Cherubal, coordinator, City Connect, an NGO working on transportation issues, says that with more than 50 per cent of Tamil Nadu's population living in urban areas for the first time, “any new government will inevitably have to talk about urban governance and policies. Urban issues will enter the political spectrum unlike any other time.”
According to him, Bus Rapid Transit Systems (BRTS) must be implemented in cities such as Chennai, Madurai and Coimbatore before congestion becomes unmanageable. “This is a golden opportunity to push for a massive BRTS system in the city that will compliment the Metro. Flyovers alone will not solve the problem of congestion,” Mr.Cherubal adds.
Priority areas
A.Veeraraghavan, Transportation Engineering Professor at IIT-Madras, says that augmenting the coverage of rail and bus transits through mini-bus feeder services, using differential pricing to make transit systems affordable, providing 1.5 metre wide footpaths on all roads in Chennai, rapid expansion of Metro towards the suburbs, and a common mobility card are priority areas.
