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Growing Transportation Problem in Some Urban Cities of India

Introduction

Transportation is the lifeline of any urban city. Without proper transportation, a city

would not be able to thrive in today’s conditions of growing population and vehicle density.

Some Indian urban cities have proper transportation resources, which can cope with the

increasing vehicle density like Delhi. Delhi has a proper metro rail transit, municipal buses,

autorikshas, and many other options to cope with the growing density of vehicles. Delhi people

have got a relief in the growing traffic jam conditions on the roads of Delhi after the launching of

metro rail transit. But there are many other urban cities like Chennai and Bangalore that are

struggling to cope with the growing numbers of vehicles on their roads. Urban transport in Indian

perspective is highly significant for the proper growth of the country’s GDP and some major

industries. Proper transportation can really reduce the problem of pollution and overcrowding

conditions from some urban cities of India like Bangalore and Chennai.

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Indian urban cities have been going through a major makeover due to globalization.

Today, many new international industries are establishing their building new premises in some

urban cities of India. Services and manufacturing industries are also growing rapidly in some

urban cities of India. These industries need a proper transportation system to thrive and increase

their business. They need a proper transport system to move their workers and connect the

production facilities to retail chains. Bangalore has become an IT hub of India and many national

and international companies have established their headquarters in the city. There were already

many manufacturing companies having business in the city and now these two industries have

agglomerated abruptly within the city. This agglomeration has created an imbroglio for the

transportation condition in the city. Any growth in the services sector or manufacturing industries

will put more pressure on the urban transportation system. Some of the local and international

media are condemning the administration of these cities, which were unable to cope with the

growing demand for efficient transportation. For example, the financial press has described

Bangalore as a city of unfilled potholes where the IT workers have to improvise themselves for

around 2 hours to reach their destination. These cities need a proper portfolio for making an

effective transportation system to work effectively. According to the survey done by

Confederation of Indian Industry, which was done on the population of Southern India; there

were around 90 percent people who were dissatisfied with the condition of roads, and 59 percent

people were not satisfied with the public transport services. The same survey also suggests that

around 90 percent people were happy to contribute for good quality roads, and around 66 percent

were willing to pay higher prices to public transports to get reliability and frequency (K.M. and

V).

Historic and Present Condition

Chennai and Bangalore are almost similar in the case of population. The population is

estimated around 4 million within the main city and around 7-7.5 million around the urbanized

areas. Earlier, Chennai was established as a port city when the British were ruling the country.

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There was a traditional commercial hub nearby the administrative and military complex. After

India got freedom from British rule, manufacturing and service industry had been growing

rapidly from this main hub of the city and spread to few major rail and road infrastructure. Some

of the main industries during the pre-independence era of the Chennai were machine

manufacturing, automotive parts, and petrochemicals. Bangalore on the other hand, is a totally

landlocked city and it joins some major rail lines and highways across other urban cities like

Mumbai and Chennai. Bangalore had been a major hub for silk weaving and garment industries

in the pre-independence era. Earlier, when the population was moderate in Bangalore, silk and

garment industry thrived because they were able get their raw material easily through not so

dense highways and rail lines. Then, conditions changed after economic globalization and

Bangalore became a major hub for providing IT services to some international software

companies. Many software companies started to outsource their software requirements to the

Bangalore based companies and they build many new infrastructures within the city. But the

manufacturing and service industry were unable to amalgamate properly within the city and the

whole transport system collapsed (Barter).

Chennai and Bangalore have gone through a major urbanization in the recent decade.

Increases in number of service industries have increased the burden of population on both cities.

Emerging IT industry and other outsourcing service industry put a tremendous demand for new

workforce and so many job seekers approached the city for employment and shelter. The recent

economic growth in these cities has increased the overall income and living standard of the

residents of these cities. This new population of the city demand for better facilities and transport

system. There was a gradual rise in the vehicle ownership because the public transport system

was unable to meet the growing demands of local residents. This is the reason why motor vehicle

ownership and Bangalore and Chennai has increased rapidly. The current vehicle ownership level

in Chennai and Bangalore per 1,000 population is 330 and 300 respectively, and has been

growing at a rapid rate.

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Factual Analysis of the Problem

The major population of these cities is comprised of middle class families who are able to

own two wheelers for transportation purpose. Most families who are residing in these cities own

more than 1 two wheelers and single 4 wheeler in some cases. The major density of vehicles on

the roads of both cities is generally two wheelers. This was made possible by some amendments

in the economic policies and motor vehicle acts during the year 1985. The two wheeler groups

mainly include motorcycles, mopeds, and scooters. Indian two wheeler industry took a giant leap

after the new Economic policy was introduced in the year 1985. This policy has cancelled all the

restrictions on the production capacity of two wheelers and allowed FDI (Foreign Direct

Investment) to the two wheeler companies. So the companies were able to manufacture two

wheelers in bulk and thereby affordable prices for the customers. So, motorized 2 wheelers

became the main growing category among vehicles. The data analysis of Chennai and

Bangalore’s transport administration shows that around 1.1 million and 1.2 million 2 wheeler

vehicles have been registered recently in both cities respectively. The cars that were registered

were far beyond this figure; around 250,000 in Chennai and 267,000 in Bangalore. So, the

numbers of 2 wheelers on the roads of Chennai and Bangalore have increased rapidly since 1995

and there are no signs of abating (Bertaud).

The prices of petrol and diesel are also increasing rapidly. This is the reason why many

Indian 4 wheeler and even 2 wheeler companies are launching cars and 2 wheelers that run on

diesel. Although this may be a good choice for the consumers, but the increase in the number of

diesel running vehicles on the road is polluting the air of both cities. Recently, WHO has done a

survey to find the top 20 most polluted cities in the world. The results of this survey were baffling

and there were around 13 Indian urban cities in the top 20 list. According to this survey, the air

quality index of Chennai and Bangalore was 179 and 310 respectively. Air quality index rate is

the scale in which we measure that how polluted the air of any city is. Any value above 200 is

considered poor and the condition is worse when the index goes beyond 300. You could easily

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understand from these figures that how much polluted the sky of Chennai and Bangalore would

be.

Due to the increasing demand for new workers in both manufacturing and service sectors;

many job seekers made a beeline to both cities. These job seekers were accounted for an increase

in population of the cities quite rapidly, but the transport conditions were unable to cope with this

rapid change and were unable to provide preliminary services to the residents. This increases the

burden of vehicles on the road and the condition is becoming worse with more people

approaching the cities.

Proposed Alternatives for the Present Condition

Chennai and Bangalore need proper alternatives to provide better transport system to the

residents. One of the major problems the transport administration of both cities is financial. The

public sectors that are involved in the transport are unable to generate proper revenue for the

renewal of the transport system. They are unable to generate any revenue directly for the official

workers who are operating the transport system. The public transport services of Bangalore i.e.

BMTC (Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Company) has been unable to generate any surplus

revenue for the renewal of the transport system. By keeping some of these points in mind, both

cities need a service oriented and low budget transport strategy. This strategy needs to be cost

effective and in the favor of public transport modes. Following are some proposed strategies for

the same: --

1. Analyze and evaluate the level of performance of the transport system from the

perspective of different group of people.

2. Discover some new designs for the roads that should be walking and bicycling

friendly.

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3. Try to re-allocate the road space to make it more prone for used by any type of

vehicles, from bicycles to heavy loading trucks. Roads having different lanes for

these vehicles may be used to accelerate the transportation and minimize

pollution and save fuel.

4. Introduce some new vehicles that should be nature friendly and affordable. A

most common type of such vehicles may be battery running or CNG

(Compressed Natural Gas) vehicles, which produces less pollution. The Delhi

administration has properly adapted to CNG running public transport buses and

other vehicles and has decreased the extent of pollution to many folds.

5. The attention must be shifted to repair and construct a new secondary road

network for the city within low income and poor areas. This way these areas

should be connected to the main network of the city.

6. Encouraging some of the biggest companies of Silicon Valley in Bangalore; to

improve the infrastructure of the transport system by either financial or

reconstruction works.

7. Implementation of some kind of regulatory reform that should be aimed at

providing high quality services and lower production costs.

8. Breaking the monopoly between MTCs (Metropolitan Transport Corporation)

and developing the market for the public transport that should be capable to meet

the demands of low income group.

9. Increasing transparency among the various levels of MTCs revenue generation,

so that the corruption among the organizations should be minimized and revenue

should be used properly for the development of the transport system.

10. Focusing on bus based rapid transit lines that have a publicly owned

infrastructure and a provision of providing concession based passes to the people

living in minor regions of the city.

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11. Ensuring that the new transport system has provision to employ rapid public

transport modes.

12. Promoting low carbon transport in India and making a metro rail transit like the

Delhi’s Metro rail for maintaining the traffic on roads.

Implementation Strategy for the Proposed Alternatives

Chennai and Bangalore both need a proper makeover of their urban transport

infrastructure. The very first motivation for the makeover has been the ongoing investment for

building proper roads in the cities. Indian government is made up of two levels: central and state

level. The central government has been running many development programs for building proper

roads throughout India like the Rajiv Gandhi Sadak Yojna. The state government can ask for the

financial help from central government to invest in the road development in both cities. In

moving forward, these types of investments need to support the urban transport policy. Although

Indian public organizations have tried to develop many comprehensive urban transport strategies,

but there was a little attention by the governing authorities on this issue. The main reason for this

ignorance was the lack of attention to provision of facilities for public transport. The public

transport is basically run on the contract basis and the state government announces tender

applications for the private bus owners to run the transport services on contract basis. Now, the

private bus owners increase the rate of fares to compensate for the amount that they have invested

to get the tender. This is the main reason why the local public is not willing to travel through

buses. If the state government needs to improve the public transport, then they have to buy some

buses on their own and then hire some drivers for running them. This way the fares of travelling

from the public transport buses should be minimized and the public would feel affordable to

travel on public transport.

Chennai and Bangalore both have been going through a major transition in population

and economic growth due to the growing number of IT and outsourcing services companies for

the last 15 years. Although these companies have played a major role to provide job opportunities

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and higher salary scales for the local residents, but they are unable to amalgamate with the

existing manufacturing companies that have been working since independence. This created a

mishap in the transport system of both cities. Some major IT companies have a high revenue

generation from these cities and they have built an excellent infrastructure in Silicon Valley and

other such IT hubs in Bangalore. But the other suburban areas are unable to attach directly with

some high tech areas of the Bangalore due to lack of proper transport system. The state

government can make a joint effort with the major IT companies to build a proper transport

system near the IT hubs and join other suburban areas of the city with them. This should not only

ensure a proper transport system, but the new employees of the companies would be able to reach

their destination easily, thereby increasing the productivity for their respective companies.

With the increasing number of vehicles on the road, we now need an alternative like a

metro transit rail system for both cities. Metro rail is rail based on MRT (Mass Rapid Transit)

systems that can work simultaneously with the main transport system without disrupting it. A

most influencing example of the Metro rail system can be seen in Delhi. These rails operate on

the right of way rails, which are either underground or on the flyover based system. These rails

generally operate at 20-35km per hour and have a high capacity for passengers (from 50,000-

75,000). One of the main reasons of successful implementation of Metro rail in Delhi was that a

public subsidiary was being made called DMRC (Delhi Metro Rail Corporation) for building and

applying the system in Delhi. This ensured the quality and affordability of the Metro rail transport

system. Another reason for the success of Metro rail is that the stations are very near and anyone

living in the vicinity of these stations can easily catch the train. This has improved the overall

transport in Delhi and other suburban areas and now people are willing to travel through Metro

than their own vehicles or bus. The fares between the stations are also affordable and any person

can now easily travel from this public transport system easily. A 5-10 year plan should be put

forward by the state government to provide these facilities to the local residents (Goel and

Tiwari).

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The World Bank has been providing financial and strategic help to the public

administration of both cities to make them better. The Bank’s Country Strategy1 has been a major

contribution to provide strategic help to urban transport. According to the World Bank, urban

transport in India is a high risk sub-sector with limiting responsibilities with weak fiscal

capabilities of local bodies. It may come as a high return investment for contractors, especially if

an emphasis is being provided for improving the overall infrastructure of the system through

mass transit and flyovers. So, the Bank is willing to provide support through pilots that are

incorporated into providing support for broader municipal reforms. The World Bank can select

some minor projects in the first phase like traffic engineering, management, accessibility to

suburban areas, and bus ways. IFC (International Finance Corporation) can also play a major role

in providing support in the area by investing in the infrastructure development companies that are

willing to construct and operate urban transport infrastructure.

The policies that were reflected in the Country Strategy of the World Bank are agreed to

the guidelines for the Bank lending in key sectors. This policy includes the support from

Analytical and Advisory services (AAA) and has the following key features: --

1. Support to statewide urban policy that should be aimed to clarify the roles in

urban development.

2. Enhancing the quality of municipal management, thereby including capital

planning, budgeting, and financial management.

3. Providing a commitment to institutional reforms to provide a city wide transport

management.

4. Enhancing the public corporations and organizations for the development of

proper roads and other transport facilities.

1 India Country Assistance Strategy, September 14, 2004 (Report No. 29374-IN).

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The direct involvement of World Bank can be a great opportunity for the development of

transport system in both cities. Its direct involvement in the growth equity can rebalance the

financial condition, thereby providing an added weight to the equity camp. Secondly, the Bank

can provide loans and fund the planning for strategic transport development in the cities. Finally,

the implementation of selected projects can provide an immediate benefit to social sectors there

were earlier being neglected in the recent transport strategy.

The table below shows the 8 projects, which defines the agenda of policy and for

investments put forward by the Country Strategy of the World Bank. Those were the current

series of Bank funded projects in both states, i.e. Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, where the cities are

located. The table does not show any combination of policy to investment strategies that would

be put forward for the funding constraint. The Bank is working with the Indian government to

apply road user charges. The next three parts i.e. primary roads, commuter rail upgrading, and

metro transits are supposed to complete in medium to long term period.

MENU OF POSSIBLE BANK-FUNDED PROJECTSInvestments Policy/institutional aspects Project type

Traffic & parking control, road and area at-grade improvements

Re-allocation of street space to serve NMT modes; intensification of T&PM

Current state-based urban projects

Area-wide road maintenance and/or road improvements on secondary/tertiary network;

Intro of demand-based resource allocation; shifting funds to benefit low-income communities, local economies

Free-standing UT project or component in a state road project

Multi-grade intersections; rail-bus interchange facilities

Re-allocation of at-grade street space to serve NMT and UPT modes

Current state-based urban projects and/or free-standing UT project

Infrastructure for bus-based rapid mass transit

Introduction of concession-based operations; creation of a regulatory authority

Free-standing UT project

New primary roads Re-allocation of at-grade street space to serve NMT and UPT modes; provision for rapid transit lanes

Free-standing urban transport project

Upgrade fleet, facilities of commuter rail lines and rail-bus interchanges (Chennai only)

Creation of Chennai Metro Commuter Rail Corporation; creation of a regulatory authority

Free-standing urban transport project

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MENU OF POSSIBLE BANK-FUNDED PROJECTSInvestments Policy/institutional aspects Project type

Metro-related investment (Bangalore only)s

Tandem with financing bus rapid transit; test case for rigorous project preparation

Free-standing urban transport project

None Introduce urban-friendly road use charging system

National transport project; structural adjustment loan

Conclusion

There have been some major changes in both cities until this report has been written. The

state government of Karnataka has already announced the starting of Metro rails in Bangalore. A

new public subsidiary organization called BMRCL (Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation) has

launched the Metro rail services in some of the major areas of Bangalore city. This is a joint

venture between the government of India and Karnataka and the first reach of Metro line was

inaugurated Baiyyappanahali and Mahatma Gandhi road on 20th October 2011. There are around

19 stations in operation for the Bangalore Metro rail. Recently, a new destination has added to

this vast project that will run underground section between cricket stadium and Magadi road of

the city.2 The Indian government is eager to provide Metro rail services to some major urban

cities of the country and the project is in development in many other cities. Bangalore and

Chennai are going through a major transition after the inception of some big IT giants. These

companies are also building a world class infrastructure in the city. Now, the public organizations

like municipal corporation and transport organizations have to work together to provide a

peaceful and well managed transport system to both cities. All government and private

organizations have to put their hands together for building a brighter future for India and fulfill

the dream of some freedom fighters who sacrificed their lives for our well being (Bureau).

2 As described in the http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ website.

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Works CitedBarter, Paul. Making Urban Transport Sustainable. New York: Macmillan, 2003.

Bertaud, Allain. "Urban Air Pollution." 2009. alenbertaud.com. 5 November 2015

<http://alainbertaud.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Urban_Planning_and_Air_Pollutio

n.pdf>.

Bureau, ET. "Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation to start trial run from Magadi Road to

Stadium soon ." October 2015. economictimes.indiatimes.com/. 5 November 2015

<http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/transportation/railways/bangalore-metro-

rail-corporation-to-start-trial-run-from-magadi-road-to-stadium-soon/articleshow/

49238091.cms>.

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Goel, Rahul and Geetam Tiwari. "Promoting Low Carbon Transport in India." June 2014.

UNEP.org. 5 November 2015

<http://www.unep.org/transport/lowcarbon/PDFs/CaseStudy_MetroRails.pdf>.

K.M., Ananthramiah and Raman V. Urban Mobility for All. Delhi: Balkerma Publishers,

2002.