[sustran] Motorisation in India & in Indian cities

kisan mehta kisansbc at vsnl.com
Thu Jun 7 18:51:56 JST 2001


Dear Paul, Anilbhai and Colleagues,

It was good that Paul  put Anil Agarwal's exhaustuve  article "Incompetence
at its best" before Sustran  members. The article exposes the government
bias for motorisation in India despite increase in hardship to citizens.
The World Bank and the IMF have issued dictat to  poor countries to build
infrastructure to allow to multinational corporations free access to their
markets including  making  automobiles easily available.    Private  car is
the barometer measuring success  of liberalisation hence all incentives and
concessions to be extended.

Car manufacturers shout that the market has sagged  hence reduce taxes.
Supply gasoline at regulated low price even though global oil prices have
shot up.  This will cost Rs 120 billion (Rs 48 equals $ 1) to the national
exchequer in the current financial year. Gasoline prices in India are lower
than prices ruling in the developed countries. Our ministers do not want to
worry about upgrading diesel (now increasingly being used in personal cars)
because that may raise diesel prices  which to-day is lower than  that of
bottled water. Supplying surplus food at concession to the poorest of the
poor to stave off  starvation deaths is not on the government agenda.  This
is the loyalty we exhibit to the WB/IMF to avoid WTO censure.    It may not
be correct to term the actions of bureaucrats and ministers as Incompetence
At Its Best as euphemistically described by the author. They  work most
competently to exhibit their loyalty to affluent countries even if that
means flouting court directives and disregarding citizen opinion.

Pavements are removed or drastically narrowed down for  widening
carriageways as well as constructing flyovers/elevated roads and then make
them out of bounds to public transport.  Rump pavements are used for parking
by private cars.  Streets too narrow for providing  pavements are made `one
way streets' to allow parking on both sides.  Job of the Traffic Police is
to create more parking space in Mumbai and possibly throughout India.
There is a High Court directive on the Municipal Corporation of Greater
Mumbai (MCGM) to build pavements where they do not exist and restore them
but who cares.


Vehicles pay absolutely no charge or tax for use of roads.   What Mr.
Agarwal refers to is the state government's annual  vehicle registration,
which has now been turned into one time tax, compounded to the sum payable
for 17 years with concession given to old cars by reducing the amount for
the number of years that they are on the road.  There is no provision for
scrapping a vehicle on the expiry of stipulated period.   It is common to
see 25 year old ramshackles making lot of noise on the road while smoking
like nobody's business.    This tax has nothing to do with road
maintenance/construction as that is the obligatory duty of the municipal
body.  The government on the other hand collects from every bus commuter a
passenger tax and a surcharge what used to be known as nutrition charge when
it was first introduced in 1971-72.   These surcharges accounting to 6 to 8%
of the fare are collected through bus ticket so no chance of skipping.
Again revenue not to be utilised for improving public bus  service or easing
traffic conditions.

The MCGM spends about Rs 3 billion(appro 12-14% of its  budget)  annually on
road construction but this is not realised from vehicle owners. Car owners
in Mumbai used to pay a paltry amount annually by way of wheel tax.   My
father paid annually Rs 140 for his Ford purchased in 1937 at Rs 4,500.   I
paid wheel tax at the same rate till1989.  When I changed over to 800 cc
Suzuki (assembled and marketed as Maruti) in 1989 costing Rs 200,000, my
annual wheel tax was reduced to Rs 100.  Total wheel tax realisation by  the
MCGM  came to Rs 35 million against annual spending of Rs  3 billion.  The
state government last year directed the MCGM to stop demanding this  tax so
even 35 million are no more realised.   The tram fare for 12 km distance in
1937 was 16th part of a rupee while the bus fare now comes to Rs 10.  Mumbai
discarded trams in the fifties to remove hurdles to usher in emerging cars.
The MCGM in addition charges Rs 6 to 7 million to the municipalised BEST Bus
Undertaking which again falls on commuters.

Buses cannot use 52 flyovers built during 1999-01 at public cost of Rs 18
billion.  They ensure uninterrupted movement to car owners   while leaving
buses and all types of motorised and nonmotorised vehicles to fight for
space on the original patch making pedestrians running helter skelter to
avoid being run over.   The BEST buses, attaining an average speed of 14
km/h because of  jams,  provides about 5 million journeys daily, probably
the highest for city public road transport in the world in contrast to less
than one million journeys by Mumbai's one million cars.     Mumbai is
fortunate in having a comparatively better public road transport than other
cities including Delhi as the BEST is municipalised and professionally
managed.   Shortfall is made up by citizens by paying higher electricity
charges.

Traffic snarls and congestion are an everyday experience. Bureaucrats built
flyovers but this has only aggravated jams as many more vehicles now enter
and move in the congested areas.  Bureaucrats do not know and  rather do not
want to know that traffic is better controlled by eliminating or at least
reducing unessential vehicles on roads and by creating conducive conditions
for BEST buses to have higher turnaround.  Traffic management and road
pricing are absent.  Mumbai's population increases by less than 2% a year
while motor cars by 8% yet no restrictions.  Traffic planners do not take
citizens as a factor of traffic whose needs and hardship should normally be
the topmost concern.

We have been suggesting levy of wheel tax on the basis of the gravity of
congestion in different zones.   For example, 800 cc Maruti and Mercedes
wanting to enter  the congested South Mumbai shall take annual green card
paying  Rs 10,000 and 25,000 respectively per year, amber for slightly less
congested areas Rs 8,000 and 20,000 and red for comparatively free areas Rs
6,000 and 15,000.  Loans extended by government and private financial
institutions at practically no interest for personal car should be stopped.
Today, financial institutions run after car owners acquiring first or nth
car, to extend loan  but would not help citizens to buy a cycle at Rs 1,500.

Many Indian cities have already seen that traffic jams and accidents are not
reduced by flyovers and elevated roads. As construction and maintenance cost
does not fall on the sole users, the  motorists, this only increases the
number of private cars. General public who bear the cost of these gadgets
face suffocation and death.    So it is more than certain that the American
pattern of more and more roads cannot be the solution for Indian cities.
Road widening and construction  result in breaking down communities and
increasing  antisocial activities.  Los Angeles is  no more considered as an
articulating city reflecting the aspirations of residents.       Mumbai
surrounded by sea on practically all sides cannot have more roads.

The only solution lies in following what is now being pursued on the
Continent and Singapore of taking  more cars off the road by strengthening
public transport including rebuilding  tramways rejected by bureaucrats as
outmoded .   It would be necessary to raise the price of gasoline plus levy
pollution and congestion tax at 10% each and use the amount for reducing
pollution and congestion.  Who understands this, not at least ministers and
bureaucrats.

Kisan Mehta, Save Bombay Committee,
629 Jame Jamshed Road, Dadar East,
MUMBAI 400 014




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