Around the world, the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) has become a key element in urban transportation, usually in combination with metros. Ahmedabad?s BRTS completed its first anniversary on October 14, 2010, and the initial results are very encouraging. With a fleet of 45 buses covering a route stretching 34 km, about 85,000 passengers use the system every day. The BRTS is expected to cover a total of 84 km, with 58 km in Phase 1 to be completed by March 2011, and the 26 km in Phase 2 to be completed by December 2011. An additional elevated corridor of 4 km may take a little longer because of the need to get clearance from the Archeological Survey of India.

The rapid growth of Ahmedabad during the last decade brought with it the usual problems. There was tremendous strain on the public transport system of the city. Many more private vehicles on the road caused a major deterioration in air quality and noise pollution. The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) and the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA) responded to this challenge in 2005 by designing an Integrated Transit Plan for the city, with a multi-modal strategy that included a metro system, a regional rail system, BRTS and the regular bus system. They set an objective of increasing the share of public transport from an abysmally low 7% in 2005 to 40% by 2015.

The Government of India?s Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), launched in 2005-06, provided the city with funds for delivering India?s first full BRTS. Of the total cost of Rs 1,000 crore, half came from the JNNURM and the other half from the AMC. The JNNURM portion was split into 35% from the Government of India and 15% from the Government of Gujarat.

The planning and design of the BRTS was done by Ahmedabad?s Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) University. AMC is responsible for building the infrastructure, and Ahmedabad Janmarg Limited (AJL) was set up as a special purpose vehicle to execute the project and manage its operations. To this end, AJL has entered into a set of well-structured arrangements with the private sector. Its board has the AMC Commissioner as Chairman, and its members include representatives of associated government departments like the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority, transport experts and, more significantly, the Leader of the Opposition in the Municipal Corporation.

For a city of 466 sq kms, Ahmedabad has a well-established ring and radial road network (5 rings and 17 radials). Most of the selected routes connect to the vital junctions of the city and are placed either on wide Right of Ways that are already there or on secondary roads. This has meant that the corridor is able to accommodate the requirements of the BRTS, integrate well within the existing infrastructure without major land acquisition, and contribute to easing the traffic in a significant way.

The buses ply on the BRTS corridor from 6 am to 11:30 pm at intervals of 2.5 to 4 minutes during peak hours and 6 to 8 minutes during off-peak hours, so that people do not have to wait for buses. The average bus speed of 25 kms per hour during the peak period is the highest in the country.

The average price of tickets is Rs 5 for 5 kms, which is about 40% higher than for the city bus service. But the average collection per bus per day for BRTS is Rs 10,000, compared with Rs 3,000 on average for the city bus service. Surveys by CEPT suggest that about 50% of the commuters have shifted to BRTS from the city bus service, around 28% from auto rickshaws and about 21% from two-wheelers and cars.

AMC has put in place the support infrastructure for BRTS, which includes 51 bus stations, depots and terminals as well as a centrally-managed state of the art control room for tracking the buses. And AMC is charging no return on this investment. The automatic ticketing system as well as the passenger information system (PIS) at the bus stops, which provides passengers with real time information on bus timings, has been outsourced.

So far, Chartered Logistics has won the contract for 70 buses, based on a national competitive tender. The plan is to have 3-4 private operators, each owning 50-70 buses as the system expands. The bus operator is expected to bring buses as per the specifications and operate according to the schedule provided by AJL, and is paid Rs 35 per km for operation and maintenance, with a guaranteed payment for 72,000 km per bus per year calculated over the entire fleet. The service quality is monitored and penalties are levied on deficiencies, since reliability is the core brand value of the service. In promoting the brand ?Janmarg?, free trial runs were carried out for three months on a stretch of 13 km where citizens used the BRTS, and the feedback from the public as well as experts was used to refine the operations. As IP Gautam, Ahmedabad Municipal Commissioner and Chairman of AJL, put it, ?The dependability factor has been a source of success of the system?.

At 34 kms, the BRTS of Ahmedabad has not reached the scale of 50-60 kms when it is expected to break even. But even at this early stage, AJL is not making any operating loss. The sources of revenue are fare collection, fines for service lapses, advertisement, and pay-and-park system. Advertisement rights have been given only on 12.5 km (roadway and bus stations) so far. A beginning has also been made in setting up a Transport Fund into which some of the revenue is earmarked for managing AJL?s operations. With the expansion of operations, AJL?s operating costs per unit are declining and with full exploitation of the advertisement potential, revenue streams are likely to increase further. Once 45 new feeder buses are procured under the JNNURM, this would make a major difference to the economic viability of the system. The feeder buses will bring passengers into 4 big parking lots that are being built for the purpose of providing connectivity to the BRTS.

Last year has seen many accolades for Janmarg. In December 2009, it won the Best Mass Rapid Transit System in the country from the Government of India. In January 2010, it received the Sustainable Transport Award from the US-based Transport Research Board, making Ahmedabad the first city in South Asia to bag the prestigious international award.

An efficient and affordable public transport system is urgently needed in most Indian cities. As Professor Shivanand Swamy of CEPT, a principal planner of the system explains, ?Developing mobility solutions in urban areas is not about selecting a metro or a BRT system. It is all about putting together an integrated land-use transport system that meets the varying needs of people, and matches their socio-economic conditions and rising aspirations.? While still in its early stage, the Ahmedabad BRTS has shown a way for a sustainable Indian model of rapid transit system.

Isher Judge Ahluwalia is chair of Icrier and chair of the high powered expert committee on urban infrastructure. Ranesh Nair is a consultant to the committee. Views are personal

This is the 10th in a monthly series on urban infrastructure postcardsofchange@expressindia.com