Metro Rail News December 2016

In the name of promoting
public transport, cities came up
with new public transport
systems such as Bus Rapid
Transit (BRT) and rail-based
systems like Metro, Light Rail
Transit (LRT) and monorail. In
many cities, BRT and bicycleinclusive
plans were approved
by the Centre with less focus
on space for pedestrians and
cyclists. This was despite the
fact that nearly 50 per cent trips
are made on foot, by bicycle, or
by intermediate public
transport systems in Indian
cities.
What ails transport reforms?
The mandatory reforms
enlisted and envisaged under
JNNURM scheme required city
development plans to be
prepared (in 2005) and stated
certain mandatory and
optional reforms but they did
not mention any reforms for
urban transport. The second
economic stimulus package in
2008 was tied to several
reforms specifically related to
transport sector such as
creation of urban transport
fund, parking policy,
advertisement policy and
constitution of Unified
Metropolitan Transport
Authority (UMTA) that is duly
notified by the state, at the
state and city levels.
The funding of transport
projects was to be done in two
installments; the first
installment was given to the
selected cities which showed
interest in procurement of
buses from the central
government. However, a
mandatory clause for release of
second installment was giving
detailed statement of each of
the reforms at city and state
level. The status of reforms
track showed that of the total
65 cities only five to ten cities
had implemented at least one
reform.
The monitoring and evaluation
framework for the JNNURM
programme was archetypal of
any government-sponsored
programme which rested on
tracking of utilisation of
monetary funds associated
with physical targets of
construction work with least
attention to benefits accruing to
the mass.
Is technology the answer?
The main focus during
JNNURM mission and now in
smart cities approach is
introducing new technologies
as the argument is that it will
solve the traffic chaos and will
serve the high-density
demands expected on a few
corridors in the city but Indian
cities have high-density
developments in the form of
urban slums. This is one of the
ARTICLES |
reasons why a good integrated
system is more in demand. But
most of the cities which have
developed metro systems have
really not looked into a holistic
approach of planning which
fails the system in a city and
thus pushing people to depend
on private transport.
The other pillar of managing
Indian cities is their
governance. The poor state of
governance in India cities is
evident to any citizen living in
one of them. According to
McKinsey report on India’s
urban awakening, since by
2030 many of Indian cities and
metropolitan areas will become
larger than most countries in
terms of both GDP and
population, it is vital that India
addresses such questions.
Without comprehensive city
governance reforms, India will
deteriorate even further and
rapidly. There has to be better
cohesion between the various
agencies responsible for urban
development and planning.
Every urban plan will need to
have a long-term view only
then will economic growth
happen otherwise such
missions are a big failure and
create monstrous disasters in
the form of flyovers and high
investment mass transit
projects with no proper feeder
services, high accident rates
and risk to health through
increasing air pollution.
Metro Rail News | December 2016 | www.metrorailnews.in 57