Non-motorised transport should be encouraged and touchless and cashless technologies should be adopted to curb COVID-19 transmission on public transit networks, according to a Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) advisory on public transport for States, cities and Metro rail companies.
With Metro rail services suspended across the country since March due to the pandemic, the Ministry issued an advisory suggesting a “three-pronged strategy” for public transport — with short (six months), medium (one year) and long-term (one to three years) measures.
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The advisory issued by HUA secretary Durga Shanker Mishra said, according to a Ministry statement on Friday, that non-motorised transport (NMT) should be encouraged and revived.
“As most of the urban trips are clocked in under 5 km, NMT offers perfect opportunity to implement in this COVID-19 crisis as it requires low cost, less human resource, is easy and quick to implement, scalable and environment-friendly,” the Ministry said. Public transport should be restarted with “greater confidence of commuters”.
It said, “... it is imperative at this stage that transmission of infection through usage of public transport should be curbed by adopting the right sanitisation, containment and social distancing measures.”
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To reduce human interface, cashless systems like BHIM, PhonePe, Google Pay and PayTM should be used as well as the National Common Mobility Card, the advisory stated.
Due to social distancing norms, about 25-50% of the Metro rail and Bus rapid transit (BRT) capacity of 10 million passengers daily would be used once it re-started. “Such dramatic and dynamic changes in demand and supply will require complementing these public transport systems with alternative modes of transit,” it said.
