The Hindu Business Line : Putting buses on fast track

The month-old Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) in Ahmedabad is catching on. Though not adopted by office-goers, as it is yet to cover some of the busy routes, it finds a wide range of users, especially housewives, students and the aged who see it as a safe and comfortable means of travel.

Finding acceptance

“I am going to a wedding and so decided to use the BRTS. It is a comfortable ride,” says Ms Meena, a housewife travelling along with with her children, on the BRTS. Ajay, another passenger, adds that he has started travelling on the BRTS as the service is frequent, hassle-free and unlike the Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Service (AMTS) bus, it stops to pick up passengers.

Though the fare of BRTS is higher than that of regular AMTS buses, many passengers believe that it is better to travel by BRTS. The fares are between Rs 2 and Rs 11 along the 12-km stretch.

It is not just the commuters who are happy, Mr Malik, a BRTS driver who was earlier a driver on the regular AMTS, sits proudly at the wheel of the new bus. “It is easier as we do not have to deal with the other traffic and we are also paid slightly higher. We also get uniforms, it looks good,” he says.

A GPRS system connects him to the control room to provide real-time information to commuters waiting at the stops. Mr Abhijit Lokre, Architect and Urban Planner with CEPT Research and Development Unit, says “The price is slightly higher than that of AMTS.”

In one month of its operations, the BRTS, at an average, carried 22,500 passengers a day, earning Rs 80,000 to Rs lakh a day. But it spends more than it earns on a daily basis.

The Ahmedabad Janmarg Ltd, the Special Purpose Vehicle formed by Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation to operate the BRTS, is not worried. “We knew that the ticket prices would not be enough to cover our expenses and we are inviting tenders for leasing out advertising space and collecting parking fees at places along the BRT corridor,” says Mr Lokre.

Parking space

Plans are on to charge for parking space throughout the city, including along the BRTS route. “Our cities cannot afford free parking any more, it has been successfully implemented in international cities such as Singapore and it is time we did it too,” he says.

To justify the fees, the quality of the public transport system in a city should be improved and sustained. A 12-km stretch of the BRTS has been completed and work is on to complete the first phase of 38 km before the monsoons of 2010.

It will pass through the heart of the city and will be accessible to more commuters. This would be a challenge as bridges need to be widened and there are heritage structures such as the old city gates and a railway station along the planned route.

The design is being altered to allow for overtaking lanes, and stops only at heavy traffic bus stops, in line with the suggestions made by Mr Enrique Penalosa, Former Mayor of Bogota, who visited the city recently.

He was responsible for introducing a BRTS in Bogota, which has inspired the design for the Ahmedabad BRTS. Such express services can help increase the capacity utilisation by a factor of five, Mr Lokre explained.

Learning from last month's operations some changes in design are planned. Road surfaces at bus stops would be strengthened to prevent ruts due to repeated pressure. The bus stops will be moved away from the junctions, so that the regular traffic is not affected.

Though the corridor is dedicated to BRT , two-wheeler riders tend to encroach. The CEPT plans to redesign the pedestrian crossing and wheelchair access to prevent entry of two-wheelers. But it is also a mindset that has to change, says Mr Lokre.

Air-conditioned buses

The AMTS and GSRTC bus routes at several places would be diverted away from the BRTS routes so that more traffic can shift to BRT. But in some places, AMTS will also be used as feeder services. Some of the AMTS buses may beallowed to enter the BRT corridor for easy transfer of passengers.

Ashok Leyland will provide around 20 air-conditioned buses to ply on the corridor with the same fares but at a lower frequency.

But even after this overhaul of the bus systems, AMTS buses will carry around nine lakh passengers while BRTS will carry only three lakh, says Mr Lokre.

The fund for the first phase of BRTS was Rs 490 crore and there has been no escalation of costs though it has been delayed by nine months. The next stretch should be quicker than the first as roads are more or less ready, people have accepted it and the design is in place, says Mr Lokre.

A team from the Delhi Integrated Multi-modal Transit System, the implementing agency of Delhi BRTS, visited Ahmedabad and expressed interest in switching over to median bus stops from their current kerb stops that do not allow for changing buses on the same route.

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