[sustran] 'People's draft' to improve transport system in Indore

[Vinay Baindur]

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/indore/people-s-draft-to-improve-transport-system-in-indore/article1-1287062.aspx

'People's draft' to improve transport system in Indore HT Correspondent
<http://www.hindustantimes.com/Search/search.aspx?q=HT%20Correspondent&op=auth>,
Hindustan Times  Indore, November 17, 2014

 Dissatisfied with its existing state, some 30 voluntary organisations will
prepare a "people's draft" outlining the public transport in Indore. The
draft, to be prepared after obtaining inputs from the general public and
non-motorised transport users, will be finalised after consulting transport
planners, following which it will be submitted to the administration.

A decision to this effect was taken at a seminar titled 'Indore BRTS (Bus
Rapid Transit System) and Urban Planning: Current Status and Future
Planning', held at Pritamlal Dua auditorium here on Sunday.

Organised by city-based NGO Roopankan, the seminar was attended by eminent
citizens, activists, as well as organisations working for sustainable
public transport systems.

The need for a people's draft arose because it was felt that public
transport policy and operations should be driven from the ground up rather
than top-down, said the organisers.

"Public transport should be consonant with the needs of the users and space
should be allocated to all sections, including pedestrians and cyclists,"
said Rajendra Ravi of the Delhi-based Institute for Democracy and
Sustainability which launched Equal Road Rights Campaign which calls for
democratisation of road space.

Earlier, the delegates at the seminar dubbed BRTS a mixed bad declaring
that "while it is a good concept the implementation (in Indore) is flawed."

State National Domestic Workers Union secretary Nirmala Devre slammed the
rent-a-bicycle service launched by the Atal Indore City Transport Limited
(the company that oversees the BRTS). "There are either no cycle tracks on
the BRTS and in cases where the tracks have been built that have been
usurped by encroachers," she claimed.

Devre said that a social audit of cycle tracks was carried out and a copy
submitted tio the administration but nothing happened. Well-known
short-story writer Kanupriya, who uses public transport extensively,
bemoaned AICTS's propensity for shutting down operations on key routes.