By Sachin Murdeshwar

Mumbai: A nightmare is waiting to embrace you every day the moment you walk out of your home or office. The thought of struggling through daily traffic, parking woes and reckless drivers is horrific, but it’s a battle that every one of us faces daily. India has been witnessing one of the fastest ever growth in urbanization and wealth over the past  decades. While the growth and urbanization have been positive in many ways, there are several challenges that piggy-back along with this rapid and unprecedented growth. One of the critical issues that cities in India are facing today is traffic congestions and mobility of citizens.

 

As per the U.N. World Urbanization Prospects 2018 report, about 34% of India’s population now lives in urban areas. As per the report, it took nearly 40 years (from 1971 to 2008) for India’s urban population to rise by nearly 230 million; it will take only half that time to add the next 250 million and this expansion will affect almost every state. For the first time in India’s history, five of its largest states will have more of their population living in cities than in villages.

 

Today safe and efficient mobility of citizen poses a serious concern across every city of India. Before independence Public Transport sector was unorganized and highly fragmented because of the policies adopted by British Government to protect the  interest of Indian railways. Unfortunately, we continued with the same Policy and the MV Act drafted by British Government. The British changed their policy several times since 1939 and is on the version of 2014, but we are still regulated by the same outdated act of 1939 with only little changes in 1988.

 

On the one side Central Government adopted liberal policy in most sectors because of which Indian economy grew at unprecedented rate. Over last 30 years due to this policy change, production and sale of two- and four-wheeled vehicles has been phenomenal.

 

As incomes rise, more and more people want to own vehicles and many will have more than one. Digest this: It took India around 60 years to have 100 million registered vehicles, but just seven years to reach 200 million, according to a Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) analysis of government data. Similarly, it took 55 years for India to have 10 million cars, but the number tripled in just a decade. We have added twice as many two-wheelers in the last 10 years as we did in the previous 54 years.

 

Like India, urbanization and managing traffic congestion has been a challenge faced by many developed and developing cities globally. Recently, many cities globally have started taking relevant action to decongest cities. Globally, priority is given to Public Transport and usage of personal vehicles is discouraged. Countries like Singapore, China, Seoul, London, Amsterdam, Spain, Switzerland, USA, Canada etc.  are demolishing over bridges, narrowing roads, banning personal vehicle entry in restricted areas, levying Congestion & Registration charges in addition to heavy taxes to discourage usage of personal vehicles and make cities more people friendly.

 

There are hundreds of examples of how cities and countries can change for better when public transport is promoted, and usage of personal vehicles is restricted. In India on the other hand, Personal Vehicle Mobility is given priority over People Mobility. It is high time that both the government and the authorities firm up a robust plan to improve infrastructure, promote public transport and discourage personal ownership of vehicles.

 

What the country needs today is:

 

• Abolition of Permits by states:  Today public transport vehicles are subjected to high per seat taxes, restrictions on movement and harassment by local RTO’s .  This extortion which hinders growth of efficient safe and high quality shared mobility must stop immediately. This can have a transformative impact in the short term to reduce traffic congestion and help the environment.
• Public Transport Policy: To formulate Public Transport Policy and publish Plan for states with intention to support development of Safe, Smart, Sustainable and integrated Public Transport systems in the areas of Urban, Rural and Intercity.   This must be done with the private sector taking the lead as this will create millions of new micro entrepreneurs operating shared transport vehicles. Women owners cum drivers can be given tax breaks to encourage more of them to join the workforce and help the economy.
• Public Transport Development Fund: To allocate 25% of States road budget towards strengthening Public Transport. A fund can be created is utilized for development of Infrastructure such as parking places, Bus stations, terminals, Control rooms and IT infrastructure etc plus It can used to provide viability gap funding for loss making routes, reimbursement of concessions offered etc.  All state transport corporations should be privatised or disbanded to improve accountability.
• Public Transport Planning & Regulatory Authority: To have state-wide Transport Planning & Regulatory Authority like TRAI which will make plans, execute such plans and keep control on quality of service by taking various steps.  In addition, it would develop and manage Public Transport educational institutions and Research & development centres.
• Public Transport Infrastructure Development Authority: Like Airport Authority of India, identify unused govt and railway land at strategic locations to develop Bus stations/ Terminals/ Multimodal Terminals across the state to upgrade standard of Passenger transportation.
• Level playing field between Public & Private Operators: Establish policy framework to encourage healthy competition between Public & Private Operators.
• Make Public Transport Sustainable: One of the main reasons for Public Transport in city being loss making is heavy taxation. In India city bus service is in direct competition with self-driven two wheelers hence raising ticket fare is not the solution to make it sustainable. The government should not levy any per seat/permit taxes on buses and should in fact provide viability funding wherever required.  In fact, in a shocking anomaly under GST, 10-13 seater small buses which are most suitable for shared transport continue to attract total GST and Cess totalling 43% at par with sin goods. Similarly, on intercity travel taxes must be zero or minimal because buses are already subjected to heavy toll charges plus CESS on consumption of fuel.

 

Safe, Smart, Sustainable & Integrated Public Transport systems is the need of the hour and the Government needs to bring focus on providing its citizens with “Suvidhapurna Sukhsdayi Pravas”. Focus should be on de-choking cities from traffic congestion, making public mobility comfortable thereby easing the life of citizens and also protecting the environment. As a progressive country, it has become more important to take certain quick actions to strengthen Public Transport in India.