In this edition of IE-Thinc, experts talk about the traffic issue in Pune with focus on addressing citizen aspirations and the challenges that administrators face.
NITI Aayog and the World Bank have forecast that India will double its urban population in the next 25-30 years. So cities are increasingly the places where most of India actually stays.
These are the places where most of India actually comes to earn their livelihood, live their whole life there, and are looking for more and more services. But are our cities prepared to deliver on that promise?
This question shows up in different cities in different ways. In Pune, we try to understand on the issue of traffic. with focus on addressing citizen aspirations and the challenges that administrators face.
The panel of experts comprised Shravan Hardikar, managing director MahaMetro, Vikas Dhakane, additional municipal commissioner, DCP Traffic Shashikant Borate and Ranjit Gadgil social activist and programme director Parisar a body that focusses on sustainable urban transport.
On Pune’s current traffic infrastructure
Ranjit Gadgil: Some years ago, there was a report from CIRT (Central Institute for Road Transport) – and then another from Ministry of Urban Development – which said that cities need to have about 50 buses per lakh population. So, PMPML which serves Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad with a cumulativepopulation of over 60 lakh,would need at least 3,500 buses. Presently, it has half of that number. So the situation is pretty bad, even based on the Indian standards.
We are making a big deal about the metro, but Metro ridership is currently 30000-40000 per day compared to the 12 lakhs passengers that that PMPML carries a day. There should have been a substantial infusion of funds into PMPML to ensure that they meet those standards of about 50 buses per lakh population and good, sustained leadership.
We must give people an alternative to which if they shift, they will not be stuck in traffic. Pimpri-Chinchwad did a pretty decent job of putting in those BRT corridors.Pune, on the other hand, has been taking a reverse path on that. And all of this, the starvation of public transport ultimately comes from the fact that the cities are still trying to solve the traffic congestion problem by building more roads, flyovers, tunnels, etc.When they really ought to have been pushing much harder to improve the public transport system.
The metro: short term pain, long term gains
Shravan Hardikar: Metro is a marquee project for the city. But let me be categorical. Metro is not going to be the mainstay of the whole public transport ecosystem.
World over, in the major cities the burden is shared by different modes of transport. For example, although London has the longest metro network, of approximately 400 kms, it only shares 15 per cent of the ridership in overall city ridership. The bus transport in London shares roughly around 45 per cent of the mode share in that entire traffic. So we need to understand that even though the metro has come to the city, both metro as well as bus transport and other modes of public transport are going to share the whole burden of transport in the city.
Now, the metro is essential because there are certain corridors which are deeply congested where the PHPDT (Peak Hour per Directional Traffic in one direction exceeds 10,000 passengers. In these corridors, normal modes of transport can’t provide a solution and these corridors will keep on getting more and more congested. That’s why we have got a Metro for these corridors. In Pune there are four to five corridors with over 10,000 PHPDT.
And that’s why metro has come in. But let me be categorical again at the upfront that PMPML will be the mainstay of the public transport. All the transport authorities, including Metro, will have to come together and work together so that we provide more efficient, seamless and multimodal public transport alternative to the citizens of Pune.
I won’t comment about the ridership numbers now as the Metro project is not fully launched. People will decide once the project is complete, and understanding Metro in the city context takes time. Commuters need time to grasp station locations, connectivity, and last-mile options. This will develop gradually. Despite only 23 kms launched in August, reaching 50,000 daily is promising. I expect significant adoption as people adjust to this new mobility option over the next three years.
About the current inconvenience, we are sorry for the inconvenience but it’s essential for the long term. We are taking efforts to minimise the disturbance and complete the projects on time.
We have already launched Corridor I and Corridor II partially. Recently, Metro Safety Commissioner conducted the inspection of the Ramwadi session and will soon be operationalised after final testing and trials are over. The underground section up to Swargate is also the final work is in full swing. Within next three months, you will see the testing and trials commissioned there.
Shashikant Borate: As it was rightly pointed out our vehicle population is bigger than our population. That is the main difficulty we are facing now.For better traffic regulation, we should have three Es: engineering, education, andenforcement. Now we don’t have proper road engineering and people lack basis traffic education.
This is not about passing the buck of blaming any other department. We are doing a lot of coordination between us. We are coordinating with each other and we are doing lots of cases in this city and enforcement is not only sufficient, it requires other means also, that is education about traffic rules in schools.
Co-ordinated inter agency planning
Vikas Dhakne: I believe there is a solution to Pune’s growing traffic and congestion issue, and various agencies, including PMC, PCMC, Maha Metro, PMRDA, District Collectorate, and Divisional Commissionerate, are working collaboratively. Despite the population explosion, from 25 lakhs in 2001 to nearly 70 lakhs today due to mergers and immigration, we’re making efforts. Projects like ring roads, flyovers, bridges, and a new metro network are underway to improve infrastructure and public transport. Our commitment is to minimize traffic jams and enhance Pune’s overall transportation system.
Shravan Hardikar: this thought has been deliberated for quite some time. It’s a valid concern. Currently, we have the Urban Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA) in Pune, chaired by the divisional commissioner, bringing various transport authorities and planning agencies together. PUMTA coordinates discussions with PMC, PCMC, PMPML, PMRDA, and others. However, the extent of authority granted to PUMTA is still under discussion. Unlike independent transport authorities with whole and sole decision-making power in global metropolitan cities, PUMTA primarily provides coordination and direction. Nevertheless, we are collaborating under PUMTA’s leadership to find effective solutions.
Ranjit Gadgil: The issue is not so much whether we have a unified authority because quite frankly, some of us are still concerned that if the unified authority pushes the wrong projects and has the vision, then we will still not solve the problem.
Vehicle ownership actually in Europe is much higher than in India. But people don’t drive to work every day. They use public transport, they walk, they cycle, they use other, as Mr. Hardikar already pointed out, a multimodal system of getting to their workplace.
But if these UMTAs or PUMTAs come together to push through big ticket projects, big flyovers, elevated highways, then we will actually not be any closer to finding the solution that we want, which is that we want to ease congestion for which we must ease congestion of vehicles.
National urban Policy and PMC
Ranjit Gadgil: In 2006, the National Urban Transport Policy came out. It’s a very progressive policysaying that you have to move people aggressively away from private modes, and shift them towards shared modes, as well as non-motorized transport, which is walking and cycling.
On the basis of this, the Pune Municipal Corporation made a comprehensive mobility plan, most cities made such plans.If that plan had been implemented, if all of us had believed in the validity of that plan, we could have seen a very different Pune today. However, what has happened in the Pune Municipal Corporation, and frankly, in other cities also, is that that CMP has essentially been thrown into the dustbin.
And what has been done is that more and more flyovers. This is a typical,ad hoc approach where administrative officers and politicians propose flyovers, underpasses or they want to bring down a flyover to build a bigger one. All this makes the problem worseAnd then we throw up our arms in despair and ask ourselves, why has the problem not been solved?Vikas Dhakne: Last year 34 villages were included in the jurisdiction. Of theRs 3.40 crore for roads for each village I had Rs 10 lakh. Due to this mismatch between resources we have to prioritise. If a certain road is used by 3 lakh and another 3,000, we have to prioritise. We need to acquire land to broaden the roads and that also needs a lot of funds. We also face opposition for land acquisition and for tree felling including those that are big hindrances and promises of transplants. There are so many issues. Also we have to trust the officials and politicians who the democratic set up has given the rights to take these decisions.