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

[Subramaniam Vincent]

Akila Dinakar, Kisan Mehta, others,

I think solutions to these problems while needing
to include lobbying, must go beyond and inter-sectorally
as well.

Like other problems in India and elsewhere these problems
are addressed best by better governance where the development
and socio-economic priorities of the majority drive public
policy and not the unsustainable social momentum of the fewer.
But arguably, better governance in democracies comes
only when it is demanded by the majority in a cohesive, sustained
and undeniably political fashion.

So how does the public that sees hundred of thousands images
on TV and posters and hoardings that program the mind that
"true progress" for the working class family is moving from
the drudgery of the public transport offering to buying a car,
in turn setting personal/family growth priorities accordingly...,
turn around and demand better public transport?

Subbu Vincent
Bangalore.
http://www.indiatogether.org

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org
> [mailto:owner-sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org]On Behalf Of Akila Dinakar
> Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2001 6:19 PM
> To: sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org
> Subject: [sustran] Re: Motorisation in India & in Indian cities
>
>
> 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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