Urban Transport |
Urban Transport |
| 10.1 About 27% of
Indian population live in urban areas. The total urban
population is likely to go upto 32% of the total
population i.e. over 300 million by 2011. The number of
Class 1 cities having population of more than one lakh is
rising rapidly. The increased urbanisation and
concentration of population in large cities will put a
heavy pressure on the already over-saturated urban
transport network. This has adversely affected the
productivity in urban areas. 10.2 The modal split in favour of mass transport is not only poor, but declining. There is tremendous increase in the use of personalised vehicles. This is leading to congestion and excessive use of non-renewable energy. The use of personalised vehicles which create congestion and parking problems should be regulated through Traffic Systems Management measures and creating facilities for off-the street parking. 10.3 This trend needs to be reversed. The Mass Rapid Transport System,(MRTS), both rail based and road based need to be developed. Taking into account the growing urbanisation and its impact on intra-urban and sub-urban rail transport, MRTS and sub-urban rail systems are required to be integrated. But the substantive problem is that solutions are expensive and particularly in the context of severe constraint of resources. The urban transport has an inherent imbalance as it involves carriage of high volume of traffic during peak hours. During rest of the day, it is under utilized. This affects the economic viability of the system adversely. Fare box revenue is unable to meet the cost. The financing of urban transport project, therefore, becomes a difficult task which cannot be performed by a single agency. It is necessary to follow a consortium approach by setting up non-lapsable Metropolitan Transport Fund to which Centre, State and local Governments may contribute. The fund should be supplemented by various levies including non-rider types. 10.4 At present, institutional arrangement for planning and developing urban transport in the country are far from satisfactory. There is a need to set up a separate wing manned by professionals in the Ministry of Urban Affairs and Environment who is at present totally ill-equipped to handle this subject. In the metropolitan cities, there is a need to set up Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority vested with the responsibility of planning and implementation of projects of all modes of transport resulting into an integrated transport system. In all cities with population of one million plus , traffic and transportation cells may be set up in Municipal Corporations which would look after the transport requirement of these cities in a unified manner. |
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