Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Wednesday, Mar 22, 2006
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Wednesday, Mar 22, 2006 |
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Infrastructure Web Extras - Roadways Cities can opt for bus rapid transit system: Jaipal Reddy Our Bureau
New Delhi , March 21 Even as cities including Mumbai and Bangalore plan to go for a metro rail, the Minister for Urban Development, Mr Jaipal Reddy, today urged cities to also consider other alternative technologies, especially the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) to ease the growing congestion on roads. "The metro system and BRTS are not mutually exclusive. The bus system can be made attractive and popular even in cities that are encouraging metro rail. Cities need to identify a system that is suitable to the local conditions. No single system can be applied across the spectrum," he said at a conference on Alternative Technologies for Urban Transport. BRTS may vary widely depending on the requirements, but broadly includes segregated bus-ways, rapid boarding and alighting, dedicated stations, pre-board fare collection, and transit prioritisation at intersections, among other features.
Easing congestion woes
BRTS requires a dedicated lane on the road just like the tracks for trains. Although it does not have the capacity of a standard metro, some South American countries have been able to provide a capacity comparable to light rail systems carrying about 20,000 passengers per hour per direction. Mr Reddy said that cities were facing severe problem of congestion due to rapid urbanisation and the growing popularity of personal motor vehicles. "The adverse consequence of this trend is on health and quality of life. "Projection indicate that in the next 25 years, the population in urban India will double and therefore we not only have to deal with today's problems but also gear up to meet the challenges of the future," he said, adding that an improved public transport system was the only remedy. He said that the National Urban Transport Policy has been finalised at his Ministry's level and circulated to other Ministries for comments.
Speaking on the sidelines of the conference, renowned transport expert and Co-ordinator Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Programme, IIT Delhi, Prof. Dinesh Mohan, came out in strong favour of BRTS, while asking the Government to improve the cycling and pedestrian conditions on the roads.
"Metro systems are not viable in today's context as we do not have concentrated business districts in the centre of the city. Therefore, metros run below capacity," he opined.
However, Mr E. Sreedharan, Managing Director, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, defended the metro network as an effective mass transit system saying, "Delhi Metro has proved that we can make the system viable. We have been making profits even with low fares and will be able to payback our loans."
"DMRC has carried out investigation and study for metro systems in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Cochin. At least in four of these cities the metro construction would start in the next fiscal," he said.
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