[sustran] Re: Motorisation in India & in Indian cities

[Akila Dinakar]

That was a good story. In fact, the problems are the same at Chennai too, 
which I have already posted on Sustran. Lesser finance and thrust on public 
transport, more flyovers that do not provide space for buses, zero 
pavements, increasing number of cars and two-wheelers, most pampered when it 
comes to price and provision of parking facilities. Result - increasing air 
pollution and more accidents. Solution: Lobbying for increasing financial 
support for better public transport and investment in public transport 
projects rather than providing convenient causeways for cars and 
two-wheelers. Akila Dinakar, Reporter, The Hindu, Chennai.

>From: "kisan mehta" <kisansbc at vsnl.com>
>Reply-To: sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org
>To: <sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org>
>CC: "Aaasust-flash'" <sustran-flash at jca.ax.apc.org>, "Paul Alexander 
>Barter" <geobpa at nus.edu.sg>, <webadmin at cseindia.org>, <darryl at vsnl.com>, 
><neeta at mit.edu>, <pgpatankar at mumbai.tcs.co.in>, <hmb at vsnl.com>, 
><clean-air at vsnl.net>, "Harshad Kamdar" <hjk at rincon.net>
>Subject: [sustran] Motorisation in India & in Indian cities
>Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 15:21:56 +0530
>
>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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