[sustran] Re: Chennai battles for sustainable transport - www.peopleandplanet.net

Eric Bruun ericbruun at earthlink.net
Wed Feb 22 05:52:23 JST 2006


Arul

What about things that could be done in the shorter term at fairly low cost? Are there railways
which could be upgraded into a regional service? Could enforcement and queue bypasses speed
up the buses? What excuse should politicians have to oppose these but yet support the monorail
project? 

Eric Brun


-----Original Message-----
From: arul rathinam <arulgreen at yahoo.com>
Sent: Feb 21, 2006 12:25 PM
To: sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org
Subject: [sustran] Chennai battles for sustainable transport -	www.peopleandplanet.net

Chennai battles for sustainable transport

Posted: 21 Feb 2006

Chennai, formerly Madras, on the Coromandel Coast of
southern India, has grown into a metropolitan city of
7 million people. It is also the scene of a major
campaign to oppose the decision by the State
Government of Tamil Nadu to solve the city’s transport
problem by building a 300 km monorail. The campaign’s
plea for a transport system that meets the needs of
all the people will be echoed in cities around the
world. 

A pressure group, Pasumai Thaayagam (Green
Motherland), has launched the Campaign for Sustainable
Transport in Chennai. It argues that Monorail is used
only as feeder service in all the countries where it
is in operation, and that only a city-wide rapid bus
system will meet the needs of Chennai’s growing
population. It has distributed leaflets throughout the
city and is organising school meetings. It is also
holding a seminar on sustainable transport in the city
this week.

Only Japan has a monorail over 100 km. the campaign
organisers say. In Malaysia, Australia and United
States monorails runs for less then 100 km. It is yet
to be tested as a mainline metro system anywhere in
the world. But the Government of Tamil Nadu has
announced 300 km monorail project as a mainline metro
system. 

“We are strongly opposing the Chennai monorail
project. Instead of monorail, we are demanding a Bus
Rapid Transit (BRT) system for Chennai. Our
organisation’s founder Dr. S. Ramadoss raised this
demand at a demonstration against the monorail
project. And he has the backing of the Indian Railway
Minister for State, Mr. Velu, who has also opposed the
project,” the campaign organisers told Planet 21. 

Bicycle lanes

A BRT system, would ensures the use of high quality
and high capacity buses for public transport, Mr
Ramadoss told the demonstrators. It would be cheaper
than the monorail system and more suited to Chennai.
Countries such as Brazil, Indonesia and South Korea
had gone for it. The proposed monorail project could
not meet the transport demands of the Chennai
Metropolitan Area and should be scrapped. 

He said the fleet strength of the Metropolitan
Transport Corporation should be increased to 5,000.
There should be a separate track for bicycles on all
roads and no reduction in the space meant for
footpaths. 

The Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA) now covers an area
of 1177 sq. kilometres. The number of motor vehicles
in the city has grown from 144,282 in 1984 to
1,674,185 in 2005. Between year 1992 and 2005 the
number of motorised two wheelers increased from
433,046 to 1,266,114 and the number of cars has
increased from 122,531 to 301,128. About 450 vehicles
are registered every day in Chennai. That means 13,000
vehicles in a month and 160,000 a year.

This trend has created many problems including
pollution, noise, traffic fatalities and injuries and
wasteful congestion. Most people use public transport,
bicycles and pedestrian paths - but these modes are
totally neglected in Chennai.

Static fleet

While personal means of motorised transport has
increased greatly over the years, growth in the bus
fleet has been abysmally poor. The bus fleet grew by
some 9 per cent during 1970-80, a rate that was
reduced to 6 per cent during 1980-90 and to about 4
per cent for the period 1990-2000 until it was now
static. The total number of buses in Chennai is 2773,
out of which 1294 are more then 8 years old. That
means Chennai has only about 1500 workable buses. As a
result, passenger growth has decreased from 4,300,000
in 1998 to 3,300,000 in 2005.

Moreover, there are no segregated lanes for
non-motorist transport and or safe pedestrian
facilities. 

Chennai’s campaign demands:

•  improved public transport - i.e. at least 5000
buses (with 3500 new buses), with traffic priority for
buses, and possibly Bus Rapid Transit 
•  provision of improved rights of way for pedestrians
and bicyclists 
•  better air quality.

http://www.peopleandplanet.net/doc.php?id=2679

to contact 

PASUMAI THAAYAGAM (Green Mother Land),
No. 9,(old No: 5), Lynwood Lane, 
Mahalingapuram,
CHENNAI -600 034, 
Tamil Nadu,
INDIA.

Email:  pasumaimail at yahoo.co.in
Fax:  +91-44-28172122
www.p-t.in

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