Urban Transport in India – Part 1

This is a two part series on urban transport in India. In the first part I have discussed the problems urban transport in India is facing. In the second part I will take up the case of Delhi to discuss some issues and some solutions. Hope you will enjoy the series. 

Peak hour traffic in urban India is a nightmare. Large metropolitan areas and tier II cities both face sever congestion on their roads. The congestion is not limited to roads; other modes of transport like the suburban trains in Mumbai and the metro network in Delhi too face congestion in form of overcrowding. Commuters spend many hours travelling to and from work (sometimes as long as 2 hours each way). The rapid economic growth in India in the past decade has put a lot of stress on urban infrastructure which, failed to keep pace with the economic growth. Traffic congestion not only leads to long commuting hours but leaves a huge economic burden on the country. Estimates by the Highways Term Maintenance Association of the UK suggest that congestion costs the UK economy around GBP 20 billion a year in wasted time and resources and lost business. A similar study for Sao Paulo carried out by the Economist Intelligence Unit puts the cost of congestion at USD 20 billion (in 2008). These estimates do not include the environmental cost. If we give a value to the damage caused by resulting pollution the total cost will be many folds the current estimates.

According to the census report of 2011, urban population of India increased by 31.8%, from 286 million in 2001 to 377 million in 2011. Increasing population and more and more families entering the middle income group every year puts a lot of stress on the urban infrastructure. This double impact of population and prosperity is proving to be an urban planner’s biggest challenge. Traffic congestion is not unique to India. World over developing and developed countries have their own problems with urban traffic. In India a large share of responsibility of congestion can be assigned to lack of proper planning.

The case of Delhi and Mumbai stands out as example of lack of urban planning in India. Congestion on roads is mainly caused by three reasons, volumes of vehicle beyond the capacity of roads, slowing down of traffic and accidents. There is no single solution to solve the three problems. As mentioned earlier an increasing population and growing prosperity will lead to higher demand for vehicles. An increase in population also puts stress on availability of land for transport infrastructure. Urban planners should look at creating new business districts so that commuters do not converge on a single location. Delhi in recent years has seen its suburbs (Noida and Gurgaon) grow as alternate locations for business districts. However, the sole means of reliable public transport connecting Delhi to these cities is the metro network (started just over a year ago). Due to lack of reliable public transport commuters are forced to drive, leading to congestion and long travelling hours.

The bumps on the road

A road shaped like a bottle

Slowing down of traffic is the most intriguing of the reasons for congestion. Many a time commuters find themselves crawling in a traffic jam for long time and then all of a sudden they reach a point where there is no congestion. While there might not be a visible sign of the cause of the congestion, there are various reason which might slow the traffic down. Poor road condition is one of the top reasons. Potholes tend to slow the cars down since no one likes a bumpy ride, loose debris from damaged asphalt surface make vehicles prone to skid, water logging after rains leaves the commuters guessing as to what lies under the murky pool, a pothole or level road? Fixing these problems or even better preventing them from occurring will eliminate slowing down of traffic.

Encroachments are yet another reason for slowing down of traffic. The encroachments on public roads range from a kiosk selling knick knacks to shops displaying their wares on the footpaths. The encroachments force the pedestrians to walk on the roads and over a period of time the encroachments become permanent, robbing the road of its original width. Major roads in Delhi and Mumbai have many such encroachments and the urban planning agencies have done little to reclaim the space. Kolkata is probably the worst example of lack of dealing with such encroachments. With exception of Salt Lake there is hardly any public road which is sans encroachment. Encroachment in Kolkata is so aggressive that people have built residential units on public roads. These encroachments create bottle necks and slow down the traffic to a snail’s pace.

Lack of coordination between multiple civic agencies adds to the problem. Utilities departments like water, sewage, electricity, etc have their independent schedules for various civil works. Instead of coordinating and digging the roads once, they do their work one after the other. Leaving the roads dug for months together. Another problem is lack of standard procedures for taking over public roads for civil works and handing them back after the work is done. Once dug the excavated earth lies on the shoulders of the roads further reducing the available space. On completion of the work the excavated earth is filled in the trenches without proper settling procedure and without paving the exposed surface. The result is an ever sinking stretch of road, which makes it impossible for the commuters to use the road to its full capacity. Lack of pragmatic thinking is yet another aspect which leads to slowing down of traffic in many cases. Electric poles in front of traffic signals, bus shelters at busy intersections, unpainted speed bumps, all lead to chaos.

As it is clear there is no one solution to the urban transport mess we live in. It probably will never be perfect, given that we the users will keep increasing faster than the pace of expansion of our cities. Having said that there are ways and means by which congestion on the road can be reduced, making it easier for commuters to reach offices and back home, for emergency services to reach in time and so on.