Value Addition to Public Transport
J.B.Kshirsagar, Chief Planner and Dr. Pawan Kumar Associate TCP, Town and Country Planning Organization, New Delhi.
Introduction
Traditionally, Indian cities especially their core areas are characterized by confusion and chaos. Urbanization and its prolonged effects have had a direct impact on intra-urban, sub-urban and inter-urban mobility. A city can function efficiently if both people and goods are transported through optimal utilization of transport systems, infrastructure and services at minimal investment and operating cost. Passenger mobility is predominantly based on road and rail based transport. In Kolkata, in addition to bus services, tramways, suburban rail and metro services are used but there is still lack of planned integration of metro with other modes. Mumbai has a combination of bus services, ferry services, suburban rail, and metro network, though railway stations are not integrated with other modes but the use of suburban railway is extensive due to the linear structure of the city. In Chennai, bus services and suburban rail are used as major modes of public transport but no common facilities are available to integrate different modes. Delhi Metro fails to achieve its full efficiency in the absence of synergy with other modes. Delhi ring rail is still under-utilized (less than 25% of its designed capacity) due to most of the stations having low travel demand. Therefore, need for value addition to public transport through integration and improvement of both road and rail based systems to meet travel demand and quality of services, is required.This is a premium article available exclusively for our subscribers.
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NBM&CW August 2014