The sustainable development of any city depends on the availability and quality of its physical and social infrastructure. Transport is a critical component leading to accessibility to opportunities and mobility of people in metros. Presently, the status of metropolitan city transport systems is deplorable as the system capacities are limited, technology is obsolete and management is absent. On the other hand, travel demand is accelerating. The number of motorised vehicles in the country is expected to grow to 400 to 500 million in the next three decades. The result is traffic thrombosis. The visible impacts are intense congestion, long delays, increased accidents and deteriorating environmental quality.

National Urban Transport Policy

A silver lining in the bleak cloud of metropolitan transport is the increased attention it is receiving in the recent years. The Union Ministry of Urban Development have enunciated and adopted a National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP) to guide, facilitate and promote sustained planning, development, operation and management of urban transport in the country. The NUTP gives broader emphasis on integrated land use transport planning, promotion of Public Mass Transport Systems and Institutional Reforms. However, it is limited by the fact that it is too broad based, more a generalised statement of intentions and lacks in focus.

Initiation of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission has been a

major initiative in funding urban development including urban transport. Envisaged over a seven-year period and covering 63 cities, it is proposed to fund Rs 50,000 crore for urban development programmes.

Mumbai and Delhi, both have a high travel demand. Mumbai has a travel demand of about 16 million person trips on an average day. The public mass transport system includes suburban EMU rail services and bus services operated by BEST. Together, they carry more than 10 million passengers per day. The city transport system is under severe strain due to heavy migration from other states.

The share of Public Mass Transport in the national capital region is low at 39% of the mechanised vehicle trips with bus dominating the transport system. Although the metro service is being used extensively, still there has been phenomenal increase in number of cars and two-wheelers that has resulted in intense congestion, road accidents and environmental pollution. Planning efforts are on to develop a multi modal transport system comprising metro, light rail transit, mono rail, (bus rapid transit system ) BRTS and the ubiquitous bus system.

Metropolitan transport strategies

We need to bridge the gap between the planning and execution. There is an urgent need to formulate, evaluate and select relevant strategies within which programmes need to be detailed and funded by covering all the important aspects of planning, development, operation and management of metropolitan transport systems. Some of the strategies are:

• Integrated land use transport planning

• Transport system management

• Integrated multi modal public mass transport system development

• Institutional Reforms at all levels including setting up of Unified Metropolitan Transport Authorities in all metropolitan cities

• Setting up of dedicated Metropolitan City Transport funds at each metropolitan city with innovative means of resource mobilisation including Public-Private Participation

• Enacting a comprehensive Urban Transport Act providing a legal base for metropolitan transport planning, development, operation and management with constitutional recognition of urban transport under concurrent list

• Accelerated education and training programme in all the facets of metropolitan transport

• Promotion of safe operation of non-motorised modes, including pedestrians

• Rationalisation of goods movement within metropolitan cities

• Establishment of a National Metropolitan Transport Information System Metropolitan Transport requires concerted actions to plan and develop a sustainable system.