[sustran] Comprehensive mobility plan for all cities advocated

[Vinay Baindur]

http://www.financialexpress.com/article/economy/comprehensive-mobility-plan-for-all-cities-advocated/14035/

*Comprehensive mobility plan for all cities advocated*
By: PTI <http://www.financialexpress.com/author/pti/> | New Delhi |
November 30, 2014 2:02 am
*SUMMARY*

Metro Rail transport or building of more roads, flyovers and elevated
highways may not necessarily be the answer…

Metro Rail transport or building of more roads, flyovers and elevated
highways may not necessarily be the answer to India’s urban transport
problems, urban planning experts have opined.

They feel that efficient public transport is the solution and urged early
intervention to enable the emerging cities to cope up with the problem to
avoid the unwieldy experiences of mega and major cities.

The opinion came in the form of a set of 10 recommendations of the four-day
long Urban Mobility India Conference, organized by Urban Development
Ministry and the Institute of Urban Transport, that concluded yesterday.

The meet has recommended formulation of Comprehensive Mobility Plans for
cities with over one lakh population focusing on introduction of public
transport systems at an early stage to avoid the kind of problems that
bigger cities are facing today.

The example of Naya Raipur, which had introduced Bus Rapid Transport System
(BRTS) at an early stage in its development was highlighted as a good
practice.

Noting that BRTS is in use in over 160 cities across the world, the
participants noted that it may not have yielded desired results in some
Indian cities, but it is workable and relevant.

The conference was attended by over 1,000 decision makers, experts,
academia, industry delegates, civil society representatives and other
stakeholders from 20 Indian states and 23 foreign countries. Over 70
presentations and 20 research papers were presented at the event.

O P Agarwal, Director-General of the Institute of Urban Transport, told PTI
that Relevance of a particular mode of transport like the Metro or BRTS is
guided primarily by the volume of movement of people and economics.

What is needed in the larger context is quick and reliable public transport
in urban areas, he said.

“From the experience elsewhere in the World, it is evident that we need to
focus on emerging cities with early intervention to ensure such options,
Agarwal said.

The experts felt that building more roads, flyover and elevated roads may
provide short term relief but they would soon be swamped by growing private
motorized transport.

Merely building a high cost Metro Rail or a BRT would not be enough on its
own, the conference said and recommended integrated multi-modal systems
ensuring last mile connectivity for better outcomes.

The tendency is to finance mass transit from fare revenues and public
susbisdy.

However, there is a class of beneficiaries who do not necessarily use the
mass transit system, but still benefit from it. The reference was to those
who own property near Metro stations where value goes up or those who use
personal motor vehicles but benefit from reduced congestion due to others
using the metro system. “Rightfully, they should also pay for it,” it said.

The conference also recommended that urban development needs to be centred
around transport planning through formulation of Comprehensive Land Use and
Mobility Plans.

Experts from Seoul, the city credited with having one of the best transport
systems in the world, shared their experience of developing high quality
public transport system combined with demolition of flyovers and elevated
highways.

The conference has taken serious note of the lack of good data to support
systematic investment planning and the complexities of collecting and
managing such data.

It was pointed out that the data required is not available with one agency
even at the city level posing serious challenges.

It recommended to the government to take up a pilot project to develop a
database for one city, using smart phone based technologies, which could
then be replicated by others, as a pre-condition to the smart cities
programme.

The role of media in promoting awareness about sustainable transport was
discussed with the recommendation that media should be co-opted at the
stage of conceptualization of new initiatives for subsequent wider
dissemination.