[sustran] Fwd: Pune Metro proposal faulty: Parisar - DNA

[Sujit Patwardhan]

17 February 2011


Parisar's latest reports have been reviewed in the local media.
Do visit our site to download them.
Link to Parisar website: http://www.parisar.org/

Link to the two reports on Metro Rail proposal for Pune:
http://www.parisar.org/activities/analysesreports/127-analysis-of-the-proposed-metro-rail-system-in-pune.html

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Sujit





---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: A.V.Shenoy <shenoyav at gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 11:40 PM
Subject: Pune Metro proposal faulty: Parisar - DNA
<kanukamdar at gmail.com>, Arun Mokashi <arunpmokashi at hotmail.com>


   *Pune Metro proposal faulty: Parisar*
Published: Thursday, Feb 17, 2011, 13:40 IST
By *Arun Jayan* | Place: Pune | Agency: DNA

City-based NGO Parisar Urban Transport Group has questioned the
decision-making process behind the approval of Pune’s metro rail project by
the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). It has also raised issues regarding
the authenticity of the secondary data that formed the skeleton of the
proposal.

Parisar has drawn the conclusion based on its two recent studies on the
project, which points out many shortcomings in the proposal accepted by the
civic body.

The first study was a preliminary analysis of whether Pune needs a metro
rail system. The second study analysed in detail the decision-making
processes in approving Pune’s metro rail proposal as well as the detailed
project report (DPR) of the metro rail prepared by the Delhi Metro Rail
Corporation (DMRC).

Parisar programme director, Ashok Sreenivas, said it took three months to
complete the study.

An IIT Bombay alumnus with a doctorate in computer science, Sreenivas worked
as a scientist for over 15 years, before moving to the social sector.
Currently, he works for Parisar and Prayas Energy Group on conceptualising
and executing programs for sustainable transport in Pune and across the
country.

“Parisar believes that the current proposal must be rejected, and any
proposal for a system such as a metro must only be approved after a thorough
analysis of its benefits and costs. Until then, the PMC must focus on faster
and cheaper solutions such as improving the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan
Mahamandal Ltd (PMPML) and conditions for pedestrians and cyclists,” he
said.

The preliminary analysis of metro rail was based on secondary data from
three reports: the DPR prepared by DMRC, the city’s comprehensive mobility
plan (CMP) and the traffic demand analysis for Pune’s DPR prepared by Mott
McDonald.

It looked only at traffic volume data from these reports to see whether a
metro rail was justified on any corridor based on a simple metric of peak
hour traffic demand exceeding 20,000 in one direction.

The Parisar study states that though data from these reports suggest that a
metro rail may be justified for Pune, the data itself was questionable. For
example, one report states that Ganeshkhind Road already carries more than
40,000 people per direction in the peak hour, which it says is not possible.

Further, it states that it is necessary to first conduct a detailed review
of the data in the three reports and improve it before any conclusion can be
reached whether Pune needs a metro rail.

“The DMRC commissioned a 2008 report from IIT Bombay to project ridership
along potential metro rail corridors. To do this, the institute used a
‘stated preference survey’ asking citizens for their preferred mode of
public transport from among various alternatives. Therefore, the ridership
figures were estimated from a deeply flawed consumer survey,” said the
study.

The second Parisar study that used data obtained by the Right to Information
(RTI) Act, 2005, to reconstruct the timeline of various events that led to
the approval of metro rail proposal finds that some ad hoc decisions have
been made.

One of it is granting a conditional extension to the Vanaz-Ramwadi corridor
to Kharadi and the airport without any studies to back it up. The PMC has
made some misleading statements in this regard, such as claiming that the
metro was justified by the CMP, though the metro DPR was commissioned before
the CMP.




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*“..each million we invest into urban motorways is an investment
to destroy the city“*

Mayor Hans Joachim Vogel
Munich 1970

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Sujit Patwardhan
patwardhan.sujit at gmail.com
sujit at parisar.org <sujitjp at gmail.com>
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Tel: +91 20 25537955
Cell: +91 98220 26627
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Parisar: www.parisar.org
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