[sustran] Mumbai government plans to ease traffic chaos

[Faizan Jawed]

Another beating around the bush by the Mumbai government. Transport
Restraint Scheme deemed 'impractical'. I think this shows the basic lack of
will to reclaim public space from cars and control their use. Even though
the government is talking about BRT, I remain skeptical of the way and the
time in which it will (if at all) be implemented.


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Mumbai/Govt-plans-to-ease-traffic-chaos/articleshow/4698959.cms
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Govt plans to ease traffic chaos*

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government on Wednesday indicated to the Bombay high
court that it has no immediate interest in experimenting with the
traffic restraint scheme (TRS), but at the same time came up with four
significant suggestions to ease the chaotic traffic on Mumbai roads,
including a proposal to phase out 20-year-old private cars.

A high-level meeting was convened by the transport commissioner on Wednesday
at which BEST officials were also present. Among the proposals that emerged
from the meeting was barring all those who do not own off-street parking
space from buying a car.

State government lawyer S K Nair argued that the TRS scheme, which envisaged
restricting the number of cars on a given route, appeared "impractical,''
and informed the Bombay high court on Wednesday that it had come up with
other proposals to control peak hour traffic and vehicular pollution. "We
can also have dedicated bus lanes and Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS), with
BEST expected to put 200 more AC buses on the road by December 2009,'' he
said.

"All these are only suggestions. You only talk and don't act. When are you
going to act on it?'' said a division bench of justiced Bilal Nazki and
Vijaya Kapse-Tahilramani. Nair pointed out that the proposal was stil in a
very nascent stage. But the judges directed the state government to place
its suggestions in an affidavit within two weeks, with a specific timeframe
for its implementation and warned that "if the state doesn't do it, we shall
direct it to act.''

The court was hearing a PIL filed in 1999 by the Bombay Environmental Action
Group (BEAG) seeking measures to curb vehicular pollution. At the last
hearing the court had asked the state to inform whether it would try out the
TRS on certain roads for a month.

The state's reluctance to even try out TRS in the city which has over 4 lakh
cars was partially offset by its other proposals which "appear to be
reasonably positive initiatives'' said Shiraz Rustomjee, counsel for BEAG.
The court accepted his submission that the state must be asked to fix a time
frame for its latest suggestions.

Some of the suggestions such as phasing out of old private vehicles are
however not new and were made by the Lal committee eight years back. "The
20-year-old cars can initially be permitted to run on weekends with at least
three passengers, that too on the last lane,'' the state government said. It
also suggested a congestion tax as is prevalent in some countries abroad.
Rustomjee had earlier pointed out that Mumbai gets nearly 350 new cars daily
and the figure was only likely to go up dramatically once the Nano hits the
city. The HC will now hear the matter on July 8.


--
Faizan Jawed
Architect
2008 RIBA Norman Foster Traveling Scholar
Berkeley Prize 2008 Finalist
+91-9820981298
phaizan at gmail.com
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