[sustran] /IPS ENVIRONMENT BULLETIN/ ASIA: Huge Cost

[RVerzola]

The item below by the Interpress Service contains interesting facts
about mass transport in Asian cities.

Obet
(Roberto Verzola)
Philippine Greens


/IPS ENVIRONMENT BULLETIN/ ASIA: Huge Cost of Untangling Traffic 
Jam Stumps Megacities

   By Jacqueline Lee

SINGAPORE, Jun 4 (IPS) - Mass rail-based transport systems are  
touted as the means to untangle traffic jams in Asia's megacities,  
but their steep cost often leaves developing countries with money-
losing ventures difficult to keep afloat.

   Light railway systems are planned for many congested Asian  
megacities from India to Indonesia, where planners find them a  
relatively cheap, mass-based means of moving people around. They  
are also less pollutive to urban environments.

   Many experts advocate them as a means to counter many Asians'  
growing dependence on cars, which clog up streets and have become  
the main source of street-level pollution.

   But efficient, rail-based transport may become too expensive to  
build and maintain and in the long run, analysts say.

   The capitals of New Delhi, Jakarta and Metro Manila are  
grappling with the huge financial cost of constructing their  
trains to keep up with the rapid pace of urbanisation.

   These governments have resorted to raising fares and inviting  
the private sector to undertake projects in order to stretch  
transport budgets, but these and other solutions do not seem to be  
enough.

   ''The magnitude of financial requirements for developing the  
urban transport sector has not been estimated,'' Koji Kashiwaya,  
president and chief executive officer of the AIDEC Management  
Company Pte Ltd, told the conference.

   ''It undoubtedly exceeds available resources and with central  
and local governments already strapped for revenues, the search  
for urban transport financing will not be easy in the next  
decade,'' Kashiwaya said.

   For instance, heavy losses have hit the the Philippines' 170  
million U.S. dollar Light Rail Transit since it bcame operation  
in 1985, said the country's transportation and communication  
undersecretary, Cesar Valbuena.

   Interest on debts are piling up and the government is ''hard  
pressed'' to service them, he said.

   ''The Metro Manila LRT has performed exceptionally well by  
international standards,'' Valbuena said. But its financial  
situation has ''remained poor'' since the start of commercial  
operation.

   Nearly 1.5 billion Filipinos have used the LRT, which cuts  
through the busiest portions of the Philippine capital, with an  
average of 370,000 people riding it daily.

   In India, the government is already groaning from the estimated  
cost of a proposed Integrated Multi-Modal Mass Rapid Transport  
System (MRTS) to be built in the next 10 years.  

   The project, to cost some 2.2 billion dollars, will require  
huge funds to buy up large tracts of private agricultural and  
urban land that rail corridors will criss-cross.

   While officials concede the MRTS will provide New Delhi's  
commuting population of more than 10 million a safe, speedy and  
affordable mode of transportation, they doubt its financial  
viability in the long run.

   ''(MRT projects) have not generally been found to be  
financially viable in most cities of the world despite their large  
economic benefit,'' said N.P. Singh, secretary of India's  
Department of Urban Development.

   Increasing fares is not really the solution, he says, because  
that is not without its ''drastic effects'' on ridership and could  
defeat the purpose of a mass transit system.

   Singh said financing for the project will be met partly by soft  
loans courtesy of Japan and joint venture contributions from the  
national and city governments.

   As in Metro Manila, the New Delhi government is expected to  
develop real estate surrounding the MRTS and offer them for  
commercial lease to augment operational costs.

   Singh said India is looking toward the private sector for  
investments in the transport industry. ''It welcomes both local  
and foreign investments. A number of fiscal and monetary  
incentives have been announced,'' he said.

   In Jakarta, rapid migration from rural to urban areas has  
energised commercial and industrial activity in the Indonesian  
capital. Now home to nine million people, the city is seen to  
swell to 12 million by the year 2010.

   Because of its growing traffic problems, officials are  
recommending a ''highly efficient and highly reliable'' MRT system  
for use by the year 2015.

   It is not going to come cheap. The first phase of the project  
will begin in the year 2002, but pre-operaing costs from land  
purchases alone have already been estimated to reach more than 20 
million dollars.

   As noted by Iskandar Abubakar, director of the Urban Transport  
and Traffic Systems Development, the MRT's establishment would  
entail ''committing large sums of government funds toward capital  
expenditure''.

   Urban experts say the MRT is projected to have a ''daily  
patronage'' of some 1.13 million passengers by the year 2030.

   ''Although materially better off than the previous generations,  
modern Jakartans are subject to a lower quality of life brought  
about by increasing pollution and longer travel times,'' Iskandar  
said.

   In most countries the scale of transport funding is ''quite  
large'', while in some, resources are determined by the importance  
attached to the sector, said Kashiwaya, who was involved with  
project financing for the World Bank and other institutions.

   For instance, he noted that the transport systems in Singapore  
and Hong Kong have done well. But those in less economically  
developed countries, experiencing financing shortfalls, have met  
with a host of problems.

   Transport specialists said they are aware of the enormous  
capital required to finance mass transport systems and are now  
looking beyond the traditional rail-based systems.

   Trevor Griffin, a consultant involved with rail technology  
projects in the United Kingdom, spoke of the ''Ultra Light Rail''  
or ULR, calling it a cheaper alternative to conventional MRTs.

   ''Conventional light rail has seen considerable growth over the  
past two decades but there has been widespread concern that for  
many potential applications the costs have been too high,''  
Griffin explained.

   The ULR uses smaller vehicles that resemble electric-operated  
trams. Able to carry 5,000 passengers per hour, it can run on  
standard railways at street level without need for elevated  
tracks. It is best used together with other modes of transport,  
like shuttles and feeder buses for peripheral routes. 
(END/IPS/CP/JS/97)