Grant Agreement nº.SCS8-GA-2009-234061 Coordination … · the dabbawala system has demonstrated how a highly efficient and low cost delivery solution can be developed with a positive

Grant Agreement nº.SCS8-GA-2009-234061

Coordination and support action (Coordinating)

FP7-TRANSPORT SST.2008.3.1.4. Urban delivery systems

Project acronym: TURBLOG_WW

Project title: Transferability of urban logistics concepts and practices from a worldwide perspective

Deliverable 3.9

Urban logistics practices – Mumbai Case

Study

Due date of deliverable: 28th February 2011

Submission date: 10th March 2011

Start date of project: October 2009 Duration: 24months

NEA Transport research and training

Version 1.0

Project co-funded by the European Commission within the Seventh Framework Programme

Dissemination Level

PU Public

PP Restricted to other programme participants (including the Commission Services)

RE Restricted to a group specified by the consortium (including the Commission Services) X

CO Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commission Services)

TURBLOG D3.9: Urban Logistics practices – Mumbai case study ii

Foreword

The TURBLOG Deliverable 3.9 was produced by Deepak Baindur, from the Centre for Infrastructure Sustainable Transportation & Urban Planning, Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India.

The review of the document was made by:

Nathaly Dasburg-Tromp (NEA)

Rosário Macário, TIS.PT

Maria Rodrigues, TIS.PT

Ana Gama, TIS.PT

This document is set to be Restricted to a group specified by the consortium (RE), and should be referenced as:

“TURBLOG (2011) Transferability of urban logistics concepts and practices from a world

wide perspective - Deliverable 3.9 - Urban logistics practices – Mumbai Case study”

QUALITY CONTROL INFORMATION:

Version Date Description

0.1 31/08/2010 TURBLOG D3.9 Draft version

0.2 24/09/2010 TURBLOG D3.9 Final version to be revised

0.3 12/10/2010 TURBLOG D3.9 Final version after revision

0.4 30/11/2011 TURBLOG D3.9 Final version for quality control

0.5 03/03/2011 TURBLOG D3.9 Final version after quality control

Final 1.0 10/03/2011 Submission of TURBLOG D3.9 final version to the EC

TURBLOG D3.9: Urban Logistics practices – Mumbai case study iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...................................................................................... 1

1 Introduction ............................................................................................ 3

1.1 Objective of the report ....................................................................... 3

1.2 Scope and methodology ....................................................................... 4

1.3 Report structure ................................................................................ 5

2 Overview of india and the city of mumbai ....................................................... 7

2.1 Mumbai city in the macro context .......................................................... 7

2.1.1 Country profile .......................................................................... 7

1.1.1 .................................................................................................... 16

2.2 Urban freight in Mumbai ..................................................................... 17

2.3 Urban transport problems in City of Mumbai ............................................. 28

3 Institutional framework and current transport and logistics policies ...................... 33

3.1 National level .................................................................................. 33

3.1.1 Institucional Framework At The National Level ...................................... 33

3.1.2 National Urban Transport Policy ......................................................... 35

3.2 Urban level (Mumbai City level) ............................................................ 38

3.2.1 Institutional framework at the urban level of Mumbai City ........................ 38

3.2.2 Mumbai’s Urban Transport Policy ....................................................... 41

4 Measures used in Mumbai City ..................................................................... 43

4.1 Introduction .................................................................................... 43

4.2 Measures used in Mumbai City .............................................................. 43

5 Selected good practice ............................................................................. 47

5.1 Introduction .................................................................................... 47

5.2 The Dabbawalas of Mumbai ................................................................. 48

5.3 Stakeholders ................................................................................... 52

5.4 Product and/or Service involved ........................................................... 55

TURBLOG D3.9: Urban Logistics practices – Mumbai case study iv

5.5 Financial aspects .............................................................................. 56

5.6 Transferability potential of the selected good practice ............................... 57

5.7 Other aspects .................................................................................. 60

6 Evaluation of the good practice ................................................................... 62

6.1 Introduction .................................................................................... 62

6.2 Specific urban freight data collected...................................................... 62

6.3 Impacts .......................................................................................... 63

6.3.1 Transport impacts ........................................................................... 63

6.3.2 Economic impacts ........................................................................... 64

6.3.3 Environmental impacts .................................................................... 65

6.3.4 Social impacts ................................................................................ 66

6.4 Implementation of measures ................................................................ 68

6.4.1 Specific changes needed to implement measures ................................... 68

6.4.2 Integration aspects ......................................................................... 69

6.4.3 Acceptability ................................................................................. 69

6.4.4 Bottlenecks/barriers ........................................................................ 70

6.4.5 Success and failure factors................................................................ 71

7 Conclusions ............................................................................................ 73

8 References ............................................................................................ 76

TURBLOG D3.9: Urban Logistics practices – Mumbai case study v

INDEX OF TABLES

Table 1: Types of permits issued for plying goods transport vehicles ........................... 14

Table 2: Octroi Rates in different districts in Maharashtra state ................................. 15

Table 3: Urban freight indicators by impact category .............................................. 16

Table 4: Finding from traffic count at different Mumbai road junctions in Jan 2009 (Rush

Hour period) .......................................................................................... 24

Table 5: Daily fatalities in accidents in Mumbai Metropolitan Region ........................... 30

Table 6: Transport sector - involvement of State and private sector ............................ 34

Table 7: Indian Auto fuel policy 2001 .................................................................. 37

Table 8: Proposed time frame for introducing cleaner vehicles .................................. 37

Table 9: Governmental Organisations involved in urban transport in Mumbai ................. 38

Table 10: Stakeholders directly involved in the Mumbai dabbawala logistics system ........ 53

TURBLOG D3.9: Urban Logistics practices – Mumbai case study vi

INDEX OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Structure of the Report ....................................................................... 6

Figure 2: Map of Asia ...................................................................................... 7

Figure 3: Country Map of India ........................................................................... 8

Figure 4: Urban freight system approach. ............................................................ 12

Figure 5: Location of Mumbai in India ................................................................. 18

Figure 6: Greater Mumbai Metropolitan Region Map ................................................ 19

Figure 7: Spatial structure and commercial areas in the Mumbai city ........................... 23

Figure 8: Mumbai suburban Railway Network ........................................................ 26

Figure 9: Coding system framework used by the Dabbawalas ..................................... 51

Figure 10: Dabbawala logistics activity chart: home to work ..................................... 52

Figure 11: Scarcity/Density of Origins/Destinations affects the choice of delivery

organization ........................................................................................... 58

TURBLOG D3.9: Urban Logistics practices – Mumbai case study vii

LIST OF ACRONYMS

BEST Bruhanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking under the Brihanmumbai Mahanagar Palika (Mumbai Municipal Corporation)

BPO Business Process Outsourcing

CBD Central Business District

CDP City Development Plan

CO Carbon Monoxide

CO2 Carbon Dioxide

GoI Government of India

Govt. Government

HC Hydro Carbon compounds

HGV Heavy Goods Vehicle

HR Human Resource

IT Information Technology

kg Kilograms

Km Kilometers

Kmph Kilometres per hour

MMRDA Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority

NOx Nitrogen Oxide compounds

PM Particulate Matter

Rs. Indian Rupees (Indian Currency) Exchange rate of 1 € ~ Rs. 58

RTO Regional Transport Office

SEZ Special Economic Zone in India

Sms Short Message Service

SOx Sulphur Oxide compounds

SRTU State Road Transport Undertaking (India)

T-km Tonne - kilometres

VVIP Very Very Important Person

TURBLOG D3.9: Urban Logistics practices – Mumbai case study 1

EEXXEECCUUTTIIVVEE SSUUMMMMAARRYY

The overall objective of the TURBLOG project is to compare urban logistics practices of

selected case studies in different cities in the world and analyse the potential transferability

of the selected good practices to other cities in the world.

The present report analyses the selected good practice from India. The Mumbai Dabbawala or

tiffin carrier operation has been selected as a best practice, as it is widely recognised as an

outstanding example of six sigma implementation in the Indian context. This is a meal

delivery system in the sprawling megapolis of Mumbai, where many workers and employees

prefer home-cooked meals for lunch. This is currently a highly efficient and low cost delivery

solution, which has astounded logistics professionals all over the world.

The main objective of the report is to analyse the business model of the Mumbai dabbawala

best practice and to evaluate the potential transferability of the best practices to urban

logistics processes in other cities across the world.

Before focussing on the Mumbai Dabbawala case study, basic information of India and the city

of Mumbai is presented along with the institutional governance framework, transport policies,

existing transport related problems and measures undertaken to mitigate the existing

problems. This provides a better perspective of the environment in which the dabbawalas are

operating, but also allows visualising the essentials of the system and its potential for

replication in other cities.

The case study demonstrates that the informal sector is also capable to develop a best

practice in the urban freight logistics. It shows how urban public transport system can be

exploited for urban freight movements in cities where cheap, regular and reliable public

transport services are available. The main findings of the evaluation of this case study is that

the dabbawala system has demonstrated how a highly efficient and low cost delivery solution

can be developed with a positive impact on city, citizens and companies by suitably

combining factors of inexpensive manpower availability, perpetual demand, urban transport

infrastructure, unique traffic flow pattern and intuition based management practices.

Potential transferability factors identified in this case study are summarised as follows:

• Utilisation of urban public transport system for freight movements provided they have

a good network and services are cheap, reliable and regular;

• Adaptation of business processes considering the skill sets and abilities of the

company’s employees;


• Customer focus and continuous innovation to keep the urban logistics services

attractive to its core customer base.

The Mumbai dabbawala service essentially delivers a homogeneous product flow system with

high demand in a city that has a linear topography, congested road network and cheap,

regular and reliable public transport system. This business model may not be easily replicated

for non-homogenous product flows and in cities without the similar characteristics. Even so,

the potential transferability factors from this case study are the effective organisational

structure of the dabbawala system and strong ethics and value system that continuously

motivate its members to excel in their business of delivering tiffin boxes.


11 IINNTTRROODDUUCCTTIIOONN

The subject of city logistics or urban freight transport deals with the activities of delivering

and collecting goods in town and city centres. The activities include a number of

intermediate processes such as transportation, goods handling, storage, inventory

management, home delivery services, return of goods and waste. Although many of the

processes are done outside city limits, they can be studied in its entirety of supply chains that

transgress all geographical borders (Stantchev & Whiteing 2006). A characteristic of urban

freight transport is the small loads and frequent trips result in the increase of transport

intensity or the traffic density.

This chapter identifies the main objectives of Deliverable 3 of the TURBLOG project which is

primarily focused on a best practice in urban logistics from India. Further the scope of the

report and methodology used to analyse the Indian best practise case study is discussed. This

chapter concludes with the presentation of the structure of the report.

1.1 OBJECTIVE OF THE REPORT

One of the goals of the TURBLOG project is to present more detailed information on specific

urban logistics practices in different cities of the world, with the final objective to analyse

the potential transferability of the selected good practices to other cities in the world. This

report is one of the 9 in-depth case studies on urban logistics that are studied in different

parts of the world as part of the TURBLOG project.

The main objectives of this Report are as follows:

• to analyse the business model of the “Mumbai Dabbawalas” or in other words the

lunch box delivery system in the city of Mumbai, India;

• to explore the potential transferability of the selected good practice to other cities in

the world and identify limitations in its replication to other contexts.

The main purpose of this report is to present the operational details of the dabbawala service

and explore the main features that have contributed to the sustained success of this service

in Mumbai, in spite of challenges that come with changing times.


1.2 SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY

Deliverable 3 analyses an urban logistics best practice in the city of Mumbai, India. The

selected good practice is the business model of the “Mumbai dabbawalas” or in other words

the lunch box delivery system in the city of Mumbai. The city of Mumbai was selected for the

case study, because it is the commercial capital of India and a very cosmopolitan megapolis

housing urban people with diverse and deep rooted traditions, culture, values and food habits

coexist (Mahias M.C. 1999).

The tiffin suppliers (also referred to as dabbawalas in this report) deliver daily home-cooked

lunches to thousands of workers and employees in Mumbai, India. The service has been

recognised as a best practice model of urban logistics management and entrepreneurship,

which cannot be seen anywhere else in the world in terms of size and scope of operations

(Balakrishnan & Teo 2004). This organisation has a number of unique features that have

contributed to their sustained success and growth which could offer lessons for other logistics

companies’ over the world:

• It is one of the oldest surviving pre-Independence urban logistics systems in the city

of Mumbai and probably in the world. The dabbawala services were begun in 1890 by

a group of people with same ethnic background (from Pune) to support their

livelihood in India (Ravichandran 2005). The system has been operational for about

120 years without interruption. As of 2005, the services handled more than 300,000

transactions a day (150,000 boxes), employed 5,000 people and earned Rs. 360

million every year (Ravichandran 2005);

• The Mumbai dabbawala business model was conceived, developed and perfected by a

group of people who had migrated from rural areas in search of jobs. They had little

or no formal education in the area of logistics. The system has continuously evolved

since its inception and has stayed attractive to a particular market segment over time

(Pandit 2007);

• The dabbawala service maintains an impeccable record of punctual and reliable

services on all working days of the year. The service not only provides clean home

cooked food, but also delivers it safely against theft and damage (Percot 2005). There

is no disruption of services as long as the Mumbai suburban rail service network is

functional. The services reported less than six errors in 13 million transactions, which

have earned them recognition as an urban logistics service best practice in India;

• The delivery system is organised as a co-operative movement whose basic entity is

the dabbawala. The relatively flat 3 tiered organisational structure symbolises

equality and fairness. The 3 tier system allows them to be readily scalable to adapt to


demand ensuring optimal resource deployment. This structure allows the organisation

to carry out centralised planning and decentralised execution of business services;

• A unique motivating factor to improve and sustain performance levels is driven by

ethical considerations rather than personal wellbeing. The system is built on pride to

deliver food to their customers and thus as a means of service to humanity. The

members do not consider themselves as logistics providers. Mutual respect for each

other and empowerment are reinforcing features;

• This occupation belonging to the informal sector is interesting because of its special

relationship to the customised food habits of Indians, but also specific to Mumbai’s

geography.

For this case study, urban freight implies the movement of lunch boxes (or tiffin boxes)

carried by suppliers (dabbawalas) where a major part of the door to door delivery system is

done using Mumbai’s public transport system, namely the suburban commuter rail. Since the

commuter rail is a major mode of transport for the case study, the report focuses on public

transport system and specifically, Mumbai’s suburban commuter rail infrastructure and

services.

The business model and the measures employed in this case study are already implemented

for many decades i.e. not measures out of simulation or theoretic models. Through the case

study of the Dabbawalas, this report will identify best practices in the following types of

measures in the city of Mumbai:

• Emerging actualised concepts as to how freight distribution and collection can be

integrated with urban public rail transport systems that is otherwise primarily used

for passenger movements;

• Business arrangements: focussing on private associations and self regulation within a

monopolistic service in the food distribution market.

1.3 REPORT STRUCTURE

The structure of the document is shown in Figure 1. Chapter 2 provides an overview of India

and the city of Mumbai in the macro context. Specifically, the city’s transport infrastructure

system, public transport services and existing transport problems in the city of Mumbai are

reviewed. Chapter 3 highlights the institutional framework and current urban transport

policies of India and particularly in the city of Mumbai. In Chapter 4, the current measures

used in the city of Mumbai are reviewed. This chapter also describes several planned

transport infrastructure projects in Mumbai. The policy measures (mainly involving addition of


transport capacity) to fulfil the stated objectives of the policy documents are reviewed. This

chapter concludes with a brief description and status of the transport infrastructure projects

planned or underway in Mumbai.

Figure 1: Structure of the Report

Chapter 5 explores the case study of the dabbawalas in detail. Here, the Mumbai dabbawala

business model is analysed. In doing so, the contribution of the stakeholders, services

involved and financial aspects are discussed in detail. The purpose is to identify which aspects

are the keys to the success of this business model and which can be transferable to freight

logistics practices in other urban goods distribution systems and geographical regions/cities.

Chapter 6 evaluates the dabbawala service system from different perspectives in terms of its

social and business impact to the city’s transport system, economy and environment. Further,

this chapter explores whether specific changes are necessary at urban policy level to

replicate this best practice in other cities in the world. In this analysis, transferability is

explored from aspects of integration, acceptability, bottlenecks and success/failure factors.

Finally, Chapter 7 concludes with an overview of the report and key research findings.


22 OOVVEERRVVIIEEWW OOFF IINNDDIIAA AANNDD TTHHEE CCIITTYY OOFF MMUUMMBBAAII

2.1 MUMBAI CITY IN THE MACRO CONTEXT

2.1.1 Country profile

The Republic of India is a country in South Asia (See Figure 2). Mainland India is bounded by

the Indian Ocean on the south, Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal on the east.

It is the seventh largest country in the world with a geographical area of 3.28 million km2.

India has a land frontier of around 15,200 km and a sea coast length stretching 7,517 km of

which 5,423 km belong to the Indian peninsula and 2,094 km to Andaman, Nicobar and

Lakshadweep islands (Kumar, Pathak, Pednekar, Raju, & Gowthaman, 2006).

Figure 2: Map of Asia1

1 http://www.justmaps.org/maps/asia/ Retrieved 17 August 2010


India is a federal constitutional republic with a parliamentary democracy consisting of 28

states and 7 union territories (See Figure 3). Indian society is pluralistic, multilingual and

multiethnic and is home to diverse wildlife and protected habitats.

Figure 3: Country Map of India2

India is the second most populous country and the most populous democracy in the world with

an estimated 1,173 million inhabitants (estimate for July 2010).3 2 http://www.mapsofindia.com/ Retrieved on 17 August 2010


India occupies 2.4% of the world’s land area and supports over 17.5% of the world’s

population. India’s urban population increased 11 fold during the twentieth century and is

increasingly concentrated in large cities4. By 2001, 35 million plus cities existed in India, with

the largest cities namely Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata having a population of more than 10

million each. The 2001 Census data showed that around 70% of India’s population resided in

rural areas while around 30% resided in cities in India5.

There is a large variation in population density across India. According to the 2001 Census

Report, the average Indian population density was 324 persons per km2. It varies from 13

persons per km2 in Arunachal Pradesh to 9,294 in Delhi. Among the States, West Bengal is the

most thickly populated with a population density of 904 persons per km2.

Following strong economic reforms from the socialist inspired economy of a post-

independence Indian nation, free market activities were initiated in 1990 for international

competition and foreign investment. As a result, India began to develop a fast-paced

economic growth rate averaging 8-10% per annum. By 2008, India had established as the

second fastest growing major economy6. According to the IMF, the Indian economy is the

eleventh largest economy in the world by nominal GDP and has the fourth largest purchasing

power parity in April 20107. India’s per capita income (nominal) in 2009 was $1,031 and

ranked 139th in the world, while per capita (Purchasing Power Parity) of 2,941 is ranked

128th8. India is regarded as an emerging economic power as it is endowed with a very large

pool of human and natural resources, coupled with a growing large pool of English speaking

skilled professionals.

India was primarily an agro-based economy until the early 1990s. Indian trade underwent

massive restructuring following the 1991 liberalization policies. Ever since, Indian exports

3 Source: The World Factbook (www.cia.gov)

4 http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/profiles/India.pdf Retrieved 17 August 2010

5 http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/India_at_glance/glance.aspx Retrieved 17 August

2010

6 http://www.australiannews.net/story/366072 Retrieved 17 August 2010

7http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2010/01/weodata/weorept.aspx?sy=2007&ey=2010&scsm=

1&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&c=534&s=NGDPD,NGDPDPC,PPPGDP,PPPPC,LP&grp=0&a=&pr.x=81&pr

.y=8 Retrieved 17 August 2010

8 http://siteresources.worldbank.org/SOUTHASIAEXT/Resources/DPR_FullReport.pdf Retrieved 17

August 2010


have experienced a growth rate of 18% per annum, while the import sector has experienced a

growth rate of 34%9.

The main exports of India are engineering goods, iron and steel, jewellery and gems, textiles,

chemicals and agro products. In 2009, United Arab Emirates was the major importer of Indian

products attracting around 12% of all Indian exports. This was followed by United States of

America (US) attracting 11.7%, China 5.3% and Singapore 4.5%.

Agriculture constitutes India’s largest economic sector and significantly contributes to the

socio-economic development of the country. Agriculture along with allied sectors like

forestry, logging and fishing accounted for 17% of GDP in 2009 employing 52% of the total

workforce. India is the largest producer in the world of milk, cashew nuts, coconuts, tea,

ginger, turmeric, fruit and black pepper. It is also the second largest producer of wheat, rice,

sugar, cotton, silk, peanuts and inland fish. It is the third largest producer of tobacco.

Indian manufacturing industry accounts for 28% of the GDP and employs 14% of the total

workforce of which almost a third of the industrial labour force is engaged in simple

household manufacturing only. Textile manufacturing is the second largest source of

employment after agriculture and accounts for 26% of manufacturing output.

Indian service sector has the largest share in GDP accounting for 55% in 2007 and has grown at

a fast rate of 7.5% providing employment for around 23% of the workforce. The share of

business services (IT, IT enabled services and BPOs) to the nation’s GDP increased from 4.8%

to 7% from 2005-06 to 2008. Organized retail supermarkets account for 24% of the total urban

consumer market as of 2008.

The main imports to India are crude oil and machinery. Other imported commodities are

precious stones, fertilizers, iron and steel, gold and silver, consumer electronics, chemicals,

coal and transport equipment. In 2009, India ranked 15th in the world in terms of import

volume. India’s main import partners are China (11%), Saudi Arabia (6.9%), USA & UAE (6.7%)

and Iran (4.2%)9.

In the last 20 years, the inter-regional transport growth by weight in all modes has grown over

eight times in absolute terms from 283 million tonnes to 2,387 million tonnes from (1978-

2008), the bulk of the growth has been after early 1990s period which coincides with the

liberalization of the Indian economy.

In 2007-08, the modal shares for inter-regional freight transport in India was dominated by

road at 50% in transport volumes expressed in tonne-km. Indian Railways had 36% and coastal

9 http://www.economywatch.com/indianeconomy/export-import.html Retrieved 17 August 2010


shipping occupied 6% of total transport output and the rest was by air and inland waterways.

The total transport output in terms of tonne-kilometres has grown exponentially in the past 3

decades from 188.9 billion t-km (1978-79) to 1,300 t-km (2007-08) which is nearly 7 times in

absolute terms (Singh et al. 2008). The average lead distances moved by a unit tonne of cargo

indicated that road transport was popular for relatively short distances (up to 453 km), rail

transport for middle distances haulage of up to 661 km and shipping and airways for distances

greater than 1,000 km (Singh et al. 2008).

India’s inhabitants speak a diverse array of languages (16 official languages as well as

innumerable local dialects) and businesses are geographically scattered around twenty eight

states and seven union territories. Therefore it is difficult to make sweeping generalization of

business culture in India. Even so, there are certain factors universally applicable when

carrying out business in India.

In India, inter-personal relationships are placed before business interests and therefore

considered most important. Secondly, society and businesses are hierarchically structured

where one strong individual will issue direct instructions down the chain of command.

Employees have allotted positions and decision making power. Decisions from the top are

usually followed unquestioningly. Because of this cultural characteristic, many Indians find it

extremely difficult to work in a non-hierarchical business structure as is in the West.

Therefore doing business in India necessitates the liaison as near to the top of the hierarchy

as possible to have an impact on the business decision making10.

English is one of the fifteen official languages in India and is universally spoken by the

educated sections of society. As with many Asian cultures, it is difficult for Indians to say no

as it is considered offensive and leads to difficulty in continuing relationships. Disagreements

are communicated by vagueness and lack of commitment.

2.1.2 Urban freight data collection in the country

The availability of statistical data about urban goods movements in Indian cities is almost

non-existent, when compared to the situation in general traffic and in passenger transport,

where the data basis is relatively better than in the urban freight domain. Unlike in

developed countries, comprehensive time series urban freight data (by weight, distance,

volume, cost and revenues) in India is not known to be carried out to author’s knowledge.

According to the Planning Commission Committee Report for XI 5 year plan, there is not yet

10 http://www.worldbusinessculture.com/Business-in-India.html Retrieved 17 August 2010


an institutionalised collection of freight transport data in any of the urban or inter-urban

transport flows.

Figure 4: Urban freight system approach.

Source: BESTUFS II (Schoemaker et al. 2006)

Urban freight transport data is used by different stakeholders within the urban environment.

BESTUF II project (Schoemaker et al. 2006) identified the main stakeholders requiring freight

transport data to be city authorities, shippers, receivers, transport operators and vehicle

manufacturers. Each stakeholder has specific viewpoints, objectives, expectations and

requirements for collecting urban freight transport data (Huschebeck 2001). Figure 4 shows

the complexity of city logistics and their different influencing factors.

The Municipalities require data to manage the urban transport system better. This means

ensuring that urban goods transport and supply are carried out optimally, or in other words,

minimising both the operational costs of transport and negative external costs to society

(Schoemaker et al. 2006). Municipalities require information on traffic and transport such as

the number of trucks of a special size registered in a city or region or transport amounts (in

tonnes) of single business fields. The former data can be obtained easily without much

financial effort and its use is rather limited for urban freight transport planning. But transport


amounts are difficult to collect partly due to the difficulty in collection and partly because

transport companies are reluctant to share the data for reasons of confidentiality

(Schoemaker et al. 2006). On the other hand, transport industry requires data to ensure cost

efficiency for operations, more transparency in access-restrictions and harmonisation of

restrictions throughout the city.

The acquisition of reliable statistical data and performance of periodic updating is necessary

in order to obtain information about special situations or for the robust evaluation of policy

measures implemented (Stantchev & Whiteing 2006). Having such evaluation results will be

useful for the planning, implementation and assessment of measures in urban goods transport

in Indian cities. A comparison of planning and organisation of goods transport and city

logistics is extremely difficult in the present circumstances because of two critical factors -

goods transport data in India is non-existent and because of the lack of systematic and non-

existent standard data collection methodologies and institutions (Sriraman et al. 2006).

Information such as the number of trips by each vehicle in the transport company, vehicle

occupancy factors, sizes of vehicles in different fleets, goods transports via different

transport modes, use of road space by trucks and lorries and much more information is usually

missing in typical surveys carried out in many cities abroad (Sriraman et al. 2006). To develop

realistic urban freight transport models, data on transport chains, number of tours and

number of stops and origin-destination matrices related to transport weights, consignment

sizes, vehicle types, etc. is essential and this is not available from statistical survey data

(Huschebeck 2001). The main sources for data collection in India for urban freight movements

are Permit System, Vehicle Registrations and Octroi charges (Sriraman et al. 2006).

Permit system:

Permits are issued by the State Transport Authorities to operators for intra-State and National

permits. Presently the method of data collection on goods transport is done by means of

permits and licences issued to vehicles and operators as well as the revenues collected by the

Regional Transport Offices under the Motor Vehicles Act, 198811. This is the Central Act

applicable throughout the country. For goods carriage, Table 1 shows the different types of

permits issued.

11 http://www.cyberabadpolice.gov.in/Acts%20and%20Laws/MV%20ACT.pdf Retrieved on 30 August 2010


Table 1: Types of permits issued for plying goods transport vehicles12

Type of Permit Class of vehicles to which permit

applies

Description

Goods carriers Goods trucks, delivery vans, trailers, etc.

Transportation of goods within Maharashtra State for hire or reward

Temporary Permit

All kinds of transport vehicles

Use of transport vehicles on special occasions like fairs, religious gatherings, seasonal business, to meet a particular temporary need and in case of pending decisions on renewal of permit

National permit of goods vehicles

Goods truck with sleeping berth to spare driver

Transportation of goods all over India

However the database relating to these permits is not updated on a systematic basis, as a

result one is unable to know the exact number of permits issued.

Under the National permit scheme, each truck had to pay Rs.20,000 annually to obtain a

National permit (TOI 2010). The fee allowed the truck operator, access to its home state

where it was registered and three neighbouring states. For each additional state, the truck

operator had to pay an additional Rs. 5,000. Under the new regulation a unified national

permit is effective from May 1, 2010, which will be implemented in 2011 (TOI 2010). The new

permit system aims to give a further impetus to the goods and services tax with the objective

to create a seamless pan-Indian market. According to the new regulation, each commercial

goods vehicle will need to register for the national permit at the Regional Transport Office

(RTO) and pay the national permit fee of Rs. 15,000 per truck per annum to the State Road

Transport Undertaking, a NGO at the Centre. Each state will receive its share of revenue

based on the average of the last 3 years collection. The National permit is expected to save

costs of up to Rs. 10,000 annually per truck, reduce operation hurdles and time for both

commercial vehicles and the State Administration. Shippers and forwarders will not be too

affected by the new unified national permit as the permit fee contributes to less than 2% of

the total operating cost.

12 http://maharashtra.gov.in/english/homedept/transport/permit.html Retrieved on 13 August 2010


Vehicle Registrations:

Another source of data is the number of vehicles registered by the Regional Transport Offices

in each State. Registration is done on basis of vehicle category (Sriraman et al. 2006).

Assuming an average loading capacity per vehicle type, the total capacity available for goods

carriage can be estimated. However, this data does not give the break up relating to

composition of fleet. Registered numbers often include vehicles which have been

deregistered.

Octroi Charges:

Octroi is a local tax collected on various articles brought into a district for consumption. It is

paid by heavy vehicles carrying goods at the octroi posts which are set on the ends of the

city. Revenues collected from octroi charges for goods entering a district is another source of

data collection. The octroi is collected based on the value of goods coming into the district by

road or rail transport modes. Octroi constitutes a major source of revenue for Municipalities

and figure shows the octroi rates collected in the state of Maharashtra.

Table 2: Octroi Rates in different districts in Maharashtra state13

SI Place Octroi Rate (%) Octroi processing charges Total

1 Mumbai 4.5% 0.25% 4.75%

2 Thane 4% 0.25% 4.25%

3 Kalyan & Dombivali 4% 0.25% 4.25%

4 Nasik 3% 0.25% 3.25%

Pune 3% 0.25% 3.25%

There exists scarce urban freight transport data for the city of Mumbai. Given that the freight

transport industry has never been in the public domain and fully deregulated, collection of

freight transport data has always been a problem. A number of Working Committees set up by

the Indian Government have emphasised the need to develop systematic database. Very

often, Working Committees appointed from time to time have commissioned studies for the

purpose of their work and each Committee looks at specific issues which required specific

data to be generated (Sriraman et al. 2006). As a result, no systematic time series data is

available even now.

13 http://www.frizair.com/pdf/octroi_list.pdf Retrieved on 15 August 2010


Table 3 enlists critical urban freight indicators for freight transport planning and policy

purposes and highlights the severe gap in existing data collection in the Indian context. As

seen in the table below, data on the number of registered freight vehicles, number of

transport companies, urban freight flows and safety related data is collected for Indian cities.

Table 3: Urban freight indicators by impact category

Impact category Indicator category

Indicator Collected in India (Yes / No)

Freight volumes and commodities in urban areas

Transport demand

• Volumes transported into urban areas No

Logistics • Goods receivers • Logistics costs • Share of urban transport costs

compared to total supply chain • Salaries in urban freight transport

No No No No No

Population • Population density and share of population in urbanized areas

• Household size

No No

Urban freight transport fleet

Freight vehicles

• Number of vehicles according to GVW and age

• Proportion of goods vehicles in total traffic

• Ownership of vehicles • Vehicles operating in cities

Yes Yes No No

Urban traffic flow

• Number of vehicles entering cities • Distribution of freight vehicles

movements over day

Yes No

Service visits and waste collections

• Service visits • Waste collection

No No

Performance • Freight vehicles kilometres • Use of load capacity

No No

Urban Deliveries General delivery characteristics (operator)

• Combined shipments • Delivery days and times • Regularity of trips • Origin of delivery trips • Number of stops per tour, per day • Trip length • Distance between stops • Trip times • Travel time to and within city centre

No No No No No No No No No

General delivery characteristics (receivers)

• Deliveries at premises • Dwelling time in urban area/loading

and unloading times

No No


Impact category Indicator category

Indicator Collected in India (Yes / No)

Home delivery • Home delivery services offered by shops

• Number of km covered by inhabitant

No No

Contribution to economy

Employment % in transport and logistics

• Number of jobs in transport • Number of transport related

companies

No Yes

Environment Energy use • Typical fuel consumption by vehicle type

• Energy consumption in urban freight transport

• Consumption of non- renewable fuel resources

No No No

Exhaust emissions

• Typical emission factors by vehicle type

• Share of urban freight in exhaust emissions

No No

Noise • Noise levels driving truck • Noise levels loading/unloading truck

No No

Safety Accidents and casualties in urban freight transport

• Number of accidents • Number of fatalities • Involvement of freight vehicles in

accidents • Weekly distribution of accidents

involving HGVs

Yes Yes Yes No

Road user type • Cyclists • Pedestrians • Car drivers

No No No

Source: Adapted from (Huschebeck 2001)

2.2 URBAN FREIGHT IN MUMBAI

Mumbai or formerly Bombay is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra (See Figure 5).

Mumbai lies on the west coast of India and has a deep natural harbor. Mumbai lies in the

mouth of the Ulhas river. The coastal region of Maharashtra state in which Mumbai is a part

known as the Konkan region (Dwivedi & Mehrotra, 2001). Mumbai is geographically located on

the Salsette island which is surrounded by the Arabian sea.


Figure 5: Location of Mumbai in India14

The Mumbai region as a whole is a low land lying on the west of Sayhadri hill ranges. Many

parts of the city lie just above sea level with average elevation of 14m. The Mumbai region

has a varied landscape marked by a series of north-south hill ridges in central and eastern

part which is characteristic of the Deccan lava formed by successive layers of basalt flows.

Mumbai has a peculiar geography - a narrow wedge shaped land surrounded by water on 3

sides – which has for decades, dictated spatial growth which is mainly linear along the North-

South axis.

Mumbai has 6 major lakes with numerous tributaries flowing towards the Arabian Sea that

provide important sources for water for the region. Three small rivers – Dahisar, Poisar and

14 http://www.urban-age.net/10_cities/_data/_FIC/FIC_MBI.html Retrieved 11 August 2010


Oshiwara originate within the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. The Mithi river passes through the

Mumbai and originates from Tulsi Lake, gathering waters overflowing from Vihar and Powai

lakes. The rivers and lakes are only used for agricultural and industrial purposes. The city’s

coastline has numerous creeks and bays from Thane creek on the east to Madhav Marve on the

western front. The region has a 167 km coastline of which a vast area is occupied by wetlands

and mangroves.

Figure 6: Greater Mumbai Metropolitan Region Map15

After India’s independence in 1947, Mumbai’s spatial growth took place in the south near the

Mumbai Port. Gradually it spread northwards along the suburban rail corridors. Until 1968,

most of the Region’s urban growth was confined to Greater Mumbai municipal limits. The

urban sprawl study indicates that after 1968, urban sprawl took place along Kalyan, Mira-

Bhayander, Navi Mumbai and Vasai areas by conversion of agricultural land and reclamation of

wetlands (Phatak, Pendharkar, & Patkar, 1999). Figure 6 shows the area of Greater Mumbai

15 http://www.mmrdamumbai.org/ Retrieved on 12 August 2010


Metropolitan Region. Despite rapid urban sprawl in recent times, 42% of the Greater Mumbai

region’s area is occupied for agriculture and 26% is covered by forestlands16.

According to the 2001 Census, Mumbai had a population of 11,914,398. Recent estimates

showed that Mumbai’s population grew at compounded rate of around 1.98% per annum

touching 13,662,800 in 2008 with an average population density roughly estimated to be

22,000 people per km2.

Mumbai is considered the financial capital of the country as it generates 6% of the total GDP

of the nation17. In 2009, Mumbai’s GDP was Rs. 200,483 crores (USD 42.7 billion) and per

capita income was Rs. 128,000 (USD 2,730) which is almost 3 times the national average (FT

2008). Many of India’s business conglomerates and Fortune 500 companies have headquarters

in Mumbai.

Until the 1970s Mumbai’s economy flourished on textile mills and sea trade. Port and shipping

industry is an established sector in Mumbai, with Mumbai port being one of the oldest and

significant ports in India. In the past 3 decades, the economy has diversified into other

sectors such as engineering, diamond polishing, healthcare, information technology, media

and entertainment.

A significant part of Mumbai’s workforce was employed in state and central government

undertakings. Mumbai also has a large workforce of semi-skilled self employed population

who earn a livelihood as hawkers, taxi drivers, mechanics, vendors and other service and

manufacturing professions. A very large recycling industry exists in the Central Mumbai region

that processes waste for other parts of the city, which is a major source of employment for

the informal sector.

Nariman point area in south Mumbai was the first Central Business District (CBD) as the city

expanded in the period between 1950s and 1960s. During that period, growth of real estate

for businesses and offices was taking place within a small geographical area in South Mumbai

(Nariman Point CBD area). While affordable housing was increasingly available mainly in the

north and east parts of Mumbai. Over a period of time, this resulted in a large workforce

travelling to South Mumbai creating increasing levels of road and rail congestion. Over the

years, Nariman Point CBD area became saturated with the consequence that real estate

prices increased as new land was not available for further real estate development.

16http://www.mcgm.gov.in/irj/portalapps/com.mcgm.ahome_keyprojects/docs/1-

2%20Regional%20Setting.pdf Retrieved 12 August 2010

17 http://www.financialexpress.com/news/gdp-growth-surat-fastest-mumbai-largest/266636/ Retrieved

11 August 2010


For decades, Mumbai’s spatial development followed a mono-centric, linear pattern of

growth wherein, office and commercial activity concentrated at the southern end of the city,

the industrial and residential development spread northwards along the suburban rail

corridors. The first regional plan for Mumbai Metropolitan Region was sanctioned in 1973. The

Regional Plan of 1973 sought to alter this pattern by developing Navi Mumbai on the main

land across the harbour, and by creating other growth centres, like Bandra-Kurla Complex and

Kalyan Complex. Since then, much efforts and investment have gone into development of

these growth centres, relocation of economic activities from the Island City, and creation of

new infrastructure, such as, Mankhurd - Belapur railway line and Jawaharlal Nehru Port.

These efforts, together with large population growth in Thane, Kalyan, Bhiwandi, Vasai - Virar

area and massive industrial investment taken place outside Greater Mumbai set in motion an

irreversible process of spatial decentralization. The proposals of the revised Land Use Plan in

the Regional Plan 1996-2011 (Phatak et al. 1999) reflected a logical extension of this process

and were guided by existing development trends.

Presently, South Mumbai continues to remain the most dominant business centre in the

Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Bandra-Kurla Complex has developed as Mumbai’s new

International Finance and Business Centre. Vashi has acquired a key position in Navi Mumbai’s

development as the centre for wholesale trade. Similarly, Central Business District of Navi

Mumbai, and the area around Jawaharlal Nehru Port have developed for port-related

activities and have attracted office establishments, export processing activities etc. Owing to

new investments in the new centres combined with good transport linkages between them

have contributed to these centres being key job centres and areas between them, along

transport corridors, are witnessing new development. This structure comprising of South

Mumbai CBD, New Mumbai CBD, Jawaharlal Nehru Port, Bandra-Kurla Complex and Vashi form

the Pentagon (See Figure 7). This has emerged as MMRDA’s core of economic activity and

population. The possibility of the Mumbai Trans-harbour Link, and second international

airport at Mandwa are likely to strengthen the Pentagon pattern further.

Beyond the Pentagon, the existing urban centres and the transport corridors joining them

form two concentric arcs. The first encompasses Mira-Bhayandar, Thane, Panvel, Pen and

Alibag. The second arc encompasses Vasai-Nalasopara, Bhiwandi, Kalyan, Ulhasnagar,

Ambernath, Karjat and Khopoli. While the urban centres represent concentration of jobs and

population, the intervening areas along the transport corridor will be stimulated for dense

urbanization in the future. The resultant spatial pattern of the Region’s development, thus,

would consist of a core represented by the Pentagon, and rings of urban centres and

development areas along the major transport links. This pattern (graphically represented in

Figure 7) is guiding the present land use strategy.


New growth centres and new transport linkages are likely to give rise to a new spatial

structure, new pattern. De-centralization of commercial areas has been visible in Mumbai but

took some years for businesses and population to relocate. Office relocations in Mumbai have

shown some typical trends. Establishments needing large areas and having captive clientele

appear to have adopted decentralized locations while smaller establishments, essentially

depending on inter linkages with other establishments and competing with similar

establishments, have agglomerated in areas with relatively lesser real estate market prices.

In Andheri, (near Saki Naka and SEEPZ) a lot of new offices related to electronics are coming

up mainly through land use conversions from residential to industrial zones.

Road users are diverse and employ slow, medium and fast motorized and non-motorized

vehicle types (mixed traffic) on the same road infrastructure. For example, vehicles include

cyclists, pedestrians, hand carts, bullock carts, auto rickshaws, cars/taxis, commercial

vehicles which include trucks, vans, trailers, tankers & tempo. Many of the roads are

inaccessible to slow modes of transport and are indicated through notifications by the Traffic

Police on their website. Table 4 shows the traffic counts in high volume junctions around the

city.

Transport of millions of Mumbai citizens and goods is done by train, road and water transport

modes. Over 88% of the Mumbai commuters and a small part of goods is transported by public

transport (suburban trains or buses) because it is the most convenient, efficient and cheap

transport to a population that cannot afford a car or use a private goods vehicle. Mumbai has

the most extensive bus and rail networks among India’s major cities.


Figure 7: Spatial structure and commercial areas in the Mumbai city

Source: (Phatak, Pendharkar, & Patkar, 1999)


Table 4: Finding from traffic count at different Mumbai road junctions in Jan 2009 (Rush

Hour period)18

All buses Cars/taxis Auto rickshaws19 2 wheelers Commercial vehicles Locations

119 1328 452 466 73 Chembur

112 3300 - 992 90 Mahim

68 2550 - 560 30 Haji Ali

160 6004 - 880 90 Agripada

112 3300 - 992 90 Mahim

Mumbai Suburban Railways:

Mumbai’s commuter rail services are not only used for passenger movements, but also for

freight movements. The Mumbai Suburban Railway system forms the backbone of the Mumbai

dabbawala transportation system. Each suburban train in Mumbai is formed of electric

multiple units (EMU’s) predominantly formed as 9 or 12 car rakes of which 3 rakes dedicated

to goods transport. A dedicated goods rake is located in the front, middle and rear sections of

each suburban train. Typically, the goods compartment has wide doors on either side of the

rake and has open space for stowage of cargo inside each goods compartment.

The main skeleton of the rail network in Mumbai was laid down over 100 years ago, initially to

link Mumbai and adjacent townships20. This network grew rapidly to become the Mumbai

termini of two great trunk railways interlacing the Indian sub-continent. The system consists

of about 300 km of suburban rail serves 95 stations making use of linear geography, moving

6.9 million people every day and constitutes more than half of the total daily passenger

capacity of Indian railways itself.

Today Mumbai is served by two zonal railways - Western and Central (See Figure 8). The

Western Railway line runs northward from Churchgate terminus station in Mumbai CBD

parallel to the west coast of the island towards northern and western India and Delhi21.

Suburban operations extend up to 60 km northward up to Virar. The Central Railway runs

18 http://www.mesn.org/mumbai%20traffic%20stats.html#5 Retrieved 11 August 2010

19 Auto Rickshaws are not allowed to operate south of Sion area and therefore the table shows Auto

Rickshaw counts as zero in those specific areas.

20 http://www.irfca.org/articles/mumbai-locals.html Retrieved 11 August 2010

21 http://www.irfca.org/articles/mumbai-locals.html Retrieved 11 August 2010


from Mumbai Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) situated on the eastern side of the Island and

serve a large part of Central India. Suburban services extend from Mumbai CST as far as

Kasara to the north east (120 km) and Karjat to the south east (100 km). The Central Railway

is also responsible for services on the “Harbour Line” which runs from CST along the east side

of Mumbai Island to Rawli Junction where the line splits. One branch goes to north west to

join the western railway main line at Bandra, with other line continuing northward to Kurla,

before turning east wards to serve Chembur and Mankhurd and cross the new Thane Creek

bridge to access the developing city of new Mumbai.

The railway tracks are encroached upon by the squatters very close to the railway line in the

Chembur Govandi area, resulting in speed restrictions having to be imposed on the trains for

safety. At Wadala, the Mumbai Port Trust rail line joins the harbour line and north of Wadala.

The harbour lines are shared with freight traffic to and from the Mumbai docks. Within the

Mumbai area both railways carry a combination of suburban, long distance and freight traffic.

Within Mumbai many stations are less than 1.5 km apart and in some cases, less than 1 km.

Such close stations are characteristic of a metropolitan urban railway rather than a suburban

system. In addition to the lines radiating from Mumbai there is a single track connection

between Vasai Road on the Western Railway and Diva on the Central Railway. This allows long

distance north south trains to bypass Mumbai. The branch from Diva junction to Roha provides

a link to the Konkan railway.

Due to its extensive reach across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and efficiency of suburban

rail, the system suffers from severe overcrowding unknown to any other rail system of similar

dimension. Over 4,500 passengers are packed in a 9 car rake during peak hours as against a

capacity of 1,700. For goods transport too, 3 dedicated rakes are observed inadequate during

peak hour traffic. Due to insufficient oversight, many passengers are known to use dedicated

goods rakes for commuting during peak hours. This further reduces available capacity and

increases inconvenience to carry goods during the train journey.


Figure 8: Mumbai suburban Railway Network

(Source: www.mapsofindia.com )


Road Infrastructure Network:

The organized freight haulage industry in the city of Mumbai predominantly utilizes the road

transport for the movement of goods. Mumbai region has an extensive road infrastructure

network and is well connected by 4 National Highways (to Pune, Nasik, Goa and Ahmedabad)

and 19 designated State highways for inter-regional passenger and goods traffic. Mumbai

region has about 2,000 km of road length including 11 flyovers, 47 Road over bridges (ROBs)

and 104 bridges. The structural condition of the roads is generally good, though the riding

surface deteriorates during monsoons as unprecedented rains and flooding is common.

The road network has developed in a predominantly north-south direction. Extensive

development over much of the peninsula has led to the major traffic movements being

concentrated into three main corridors: western, central and eastern. The western corridor

generally provides higher level of service than central and eastern corridors. The central

corridor, especially in the south Island area, is severely congested with high pedestrian

movements and bus traffic. The eastern corridor which runs adjacent to the port area, carries

large volume of truck traffic and suffers badly from long term parking and informal roadside

vehicle maintaining activities.

East- West movement is constrained by the Western and Central Railway tracks which also run

majority of the length of the Island City. Consequently major traffic movements are

concentrated on relatively few roads, resulting in major points of congestion where east-west

movements intersect the north-south corridors. To the north of Mumbai Island, east-west

movements are further restricted by the limited number of crossing points on the Mithi river.

This lack of good link between places like Santacruz and Chembur often results in

considerably long detours via Sion and the Western and Eastern Express Highways, both for

passenger and freight movements within the Mumbai region.

The roads of Mumbai serve not only as a means of transport provision but also function as

parking areas for vehicles, extended footways, sites for hawkers and other commercial

activities. In some places notably on the Western Expressway, part of the right of way has

been encroached upon by slums. These other functions, together with frequent disruption due

to service provision and maintenance, severely reduce the traffic capacity of Mumbai roads

and highways.

The road network has developed piecemeal and this has resulted in some junctions acting as a

focus for a large number of intersecting streets. These tend to be controlled by traffic signals

which have long cycle times to accommodate the large turning movements at the junctions.

Delays to traffic are considerable and the problem increases wherever pedestrians and goods

vehicles compete with passenger traffic for the limited road space.


When these junctions are located in close proximity, which is the case in many areas in

Mumbai CBD, severe traffic congestion occurs, resulting in low average journey speeds of less

than 10 km/h. The areas around Churchgate and Mumbai Central railway stations are

particularly congested during the morning and evening peak periods. However traffic speeds

on the eastern and Western Express Highways and on the main corridors in Mumbai region is

reasonably better due to active traffic management enforced by the traffic police.

Freight movement is concentrated around Masjid Bunder, port areas, Byculla and Mazagaon

areas in the island city while Navi Mumbai, Ghatkopar, Kurla, Vikhroli and Bhandup in the

suburbs. De-centralisation policies in the early 1990s have led to the relocation of the

following wholesale markets from Masjid Bunder area to Turbhe near Vashi:

• Onion and Potato Market;

• Grain, rice, oil seeds market;

• Condiment, spices, sugar, jaggery and dried fruits markets;

• Iron and Steel stockholding sites and wholesaling markets were shifted to Kalamboli in

Navi Mumbai.

Due to the above shifting, it is observed that the heavy vehicular traffic is slowly declining in

the City areas while the traffic on Express Highways and National Highways is growing.

2.3 URBAN TRANSPORT PROBLEMS IN CITY OF MUMBAI

2.3.1 State of the art

Urban freight transport demand has increased as a consequence of increasing urban

population, consumption patterns mainly as a consequence of increased economic activity

and the mushrooming of malls for shopping. Due to the availability of a large diversity of

consumer products and shopping malls all across the city, Mumbai experiences a massive

increase in urban freight transport movements generally similar to cities in developing

economies. From 1991 to 2005, the total number of motorized vehicles (goods and passenger)

more than doubled from 0.6 to 1.3 million. While the vehicles multiplied 37 times over the

last 50 years, Mumbai’s road network only doubled. The number of registered vehicles (goods

and passenger together) is growing at 4-5% per annum. Trailers have also registered 9% CAGR

reflecting the increase in containerized goods movement through Mumbai’s ports22.


5%20Urban%20Transportation.pdf Retrieved on 14 August 2010


Road traffic density during peak hours in some areas of the city is so high that the average

speeds climb down to as low as 6 – km/h especially in the areas of Sion, Bandra and Dadar. In

addition to vehicular growth other major factors for road congestion are identified as follows:

• Inadequate capacity of existing arterial roads linking CBD areas to the rest of

Mumbai’s Metropolitan Region is identified as one of the main issues causing road

congestion. There is a lack of East-West and North-South connectivity linking the

commercial business centre for the movement of people and urban freight along

these corridors. The existing arterial roads ( Eastern and Western Express Highways)

and suburban rail infrastructure (Western, Central and Harbour Lines) are proving

inadequate for the increasing traffic volumes over the years;

• Free flow of traffic is seriously hampered by unplanned and frequent digging of roads

by utility agencies/companies for laying utility lines throughout the year which after

roads restoration leave the road in a bad condition. This causes road width to

decrease on localized areas causing severe bottlenecks and problems of congestion;

• The poor riding surfaces in internal road networks either because of neglect or poor

quality of maintenance (especially post monsoons every year) is a cause of slow

traffic movement and resultant congestion. Road closures or diversions to promptly

attend to maintenance works aggravate the traffic problems of congestion in the city;

• Traffic bottlenecks exist in the form of narrow right of ways in certain dense traffic

regions in the city’s road networks resulting in overall drop in traffic speeds;

• Because of the severe imbalance of parking spaces and number of vehicles in the city,

car and goods vehicles are forced to resort to on-street parking causing decrease in

road capacity for free flow of traffic on the road networks. In 2007, common parking

spaces were available for only 8,000 vehicles in 100 odd pay and park areas across

city. The city’s vehicular density is 591 vehicles per km2 compared to the

international average vehicular density of 300 vehicles per km2 23. While some

warehouses and retail outlets have dedicated parking areas, in most cases they are

inadequate, hence the solution is to park on the streets, sometimes double and triple

parking. This inevitably creates problems for drivers and for the traffic police who are

unable to clear congested roads, making traffic jams inevitable;

• Proliferation of slums especially on sites reserved for essential infrastructure

particularly of transport is causing impediments to the implementation of transport

23 http://www.dnaindia.com/opinion/editorial_mumbai-s-parking-problem_1080666 Retrieved on 15

August 2010


infrastructure augmentation projects. Most of these encroachments are on lands

allocated to public infrastructure projects;

• Fragmented transport planning and decision-making: issues, policies, projects related

to urban transport are handled at different levels by different departments in the

region. There is a lack of coherent integrated approach in planning and managing

transport infrastructure and services. Further the necessary investment is not coming

in the transport sector due to financial constraints of respective organizations. Due to

the fragmented planning and implementation of projects, urban transport (both

passenger and freight) is negatively affected.

As a direct consequence of road congestion and vehicular growth, negative externalities such

as delays, air pollution and increased fuel consumption negatively impact India’s economy,

human health and energy security. Mumbai is considered as one of the most polluted cities in

the world24. The growth of population, vehicles and industrial activity has aggravated air

pollution levels. Vehicular emissions are found to be a major source of air pollution

particularly at locations with higher traffic intensity.

Table 5: Daily fatalities in accidents in Mumbai Metropolitan Region

Year Persons killed every day

Road Rail Total

2002 5 10 15

2003 5 10 15

2004 6 13 19

2005 7 12 19

Source: (Lea, 2007)

In Mumbai, pollution from road and building construction is second only to vehicular

pollution. The effects of increase in air pollution have serious effects on health and wellbeing

of its citizens. A recent survey in May 2010 showed that deaths due to respiratory tract

infections increase by 20%25.

Official statistics (see Table 5) show increasing trend in the number of road and rail accident

fatalities over time which pose another problem to policy makers as a consequence of traffic

24

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:4qQxabgL0ucJ:www.gits4u.com/envo/envo19

.htm+10+most+polluted+mumbai&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=in Retrieved on 15 August 2010

25 http://www.gits4u.com/envo/envo19.htm Retrieved on 15 August 2010


growth. As per 2009 statistics available from the traffic department of the Mumbai police,

there were 6,613 road accidents in which 662 people were killed. The highest number of

accidents was caused by cars in which the casualties were 105 followed by trucks which

caused 94 deaths26.

Goods transport in Mumbai is important as two major ports of the country are located in

Mumbai region and the region is well connected by rail and road with the rest of the country.

Intercity flow of goods is characterized by bulk shipment, whereas intra city movements are

characterized by smaller shipments. The increase in the urban population, urban sprawl on

the one hand and the relocation of wholesale markets and warehouses has triggered growth in

urban freight transport volume and intensity. MMR produces 110,000 tonne of freight traffic

daily, and attracts another 104,000 tonne on roads. Of this, Greater Mumbai generates about

43% and attracts 37% (Lea, 2007). Navi Mumbai, Bhiwandi and Thane regions are also

important freight traffic attraction centres. About 16% of the total freight movement

constitutes through traffic, not stopping in MMR.

The annual urban freight transport growth rate in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) is

estimated to be 5.7% which means an inflow of goods tonnage to MMR is expected to increase

from 100,000 tonnes in 2005 to 440,000 tonnes by 2031. According to (Lea, 2007), truck

terminal area requirement will need to be increased from 350 Ha in 2005 to 1450 Ha by 2031.

2.3.2 Expected urban transport problems in the future

According to MMRDA’s Mumbai Regional Plan, the city’s population is expected to grow 23

million by 2011 assuming the growth rate of 2.2% per annum. Accordingly, Mumbai’s urban

population is projected to double in the next 32 years making the problem even more

worrying. In fact, travel demand is often linked to economic growth more than population

growth. The forecasted private vehicle growth in MMR is expected to grow by 9 million by

2031, an estimated increase of approximately 4.5 times from 2005. High vehicular growth is

expected in Thane, Kalyan and Pen-Raigad areas compared to Greater Mumbai.

In the case of Mumbai, as vehicular growth is taking place even faster than population

growth, this could have serious implications on sustainability of the economic growth unless

immediate proactive steps to mitigate the existing problems are not managed well.

26 http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_mumbai-tops-in-accidental-deaths_1351819 Retrieved on

15 August 2010


According to the CTS Report, the annual growth rate of goods vehicle traffic assessed from

past growth trends at 5.9% per annum. The inflow of goods tonnage of MMR is expected to

increase from 100,000 tonnes in 2005 to 4.4 million tonnes in 2031. The existing high rate of

on-street parking of goods vehicles clearly indicates the shortage of dedicated parking and

truck terminal areas in the MMR region. The CTS has therefore proposed a long term strategy

to expand truck terminal area from 350 Ha (2005) to 1450 Ha by 2031. The short term

measures proposed mainly consist of improving access roads to the terminal areas, creation of

adequate basic infrastructure in terminal areas (Lea, 2007).

The observed speeds on some of the major corridors in the study area from 1990-2005

indicate that overall speeds are decreasing with time and this trend would continue into the

future unless a combination of infrastructure capacity addition with appropriate transport

demand management measures are used.


33 IINNSSTTIITTUUTTIIOONNAALL FFRRAAMMEEWWOORRKK AANNDD CCUURRRREENNTT TTRRAANNSSPPOORRTT AANNDD

LLOOGGIISSTTIICCSS PPOOLLIICCIIEESS

3.1 NATIONAL LEVEL

3.1.1 Institucional Framework At The National Level

The organisation of transport system in India is institutionally complicated. Many of the

transport sector activities are state controlled, there are other significant segments which are

almost entirely in the private sector. But, the strong and sustained thrust towards

deregulation has seen that private investment and practices are slowly entering the transport

sectors which previously were fully under Government control. The relative importance of the

state, organisation of the various transport sectors within States and the current structure of

provisioning of infrastructure, services and regulation are brought in Table 6.

The responsibility for transport is largely overseen at a Central Government level by the:

• Ministry of Road and Highways Transport for inter-city roads, highways and

expressways;

• Ministry of Urban Development for transport infrastructure development within the

cities;

• Ministry of Railways for the national and some commuter rail services;

• Ministry of Shipping for Major ports, inland waterways and shipping;

• Civil Aviation Ministry for airlines and airport.

Within each of the above Ministries, transport infrastructure planning, policy making,

investment, design, construction, regulation and enforcement functions are carried out by a

myriad of agencies and organisations (Refer Table 6).

The Indian railway system is a monolithic departmental enterprise which covers provision and

maintenance of the track network, operation of freight and passenger services and also

substantial production units for rolling stock (Raghuram 2000). Railways have been the

slowest to allow private investment and management into rail infrastructure and services.

More recently, there are plans to allow private participation to upgrade the rail network and

improve the quality of services.


Table 6: Transport sector - involvement of State and private sector

Physical Basis / assets

Ownership / Control

Air Rail Road Water

Regulator (State controlled) DGCA, AAI

(State controlled) Indian Railways

(State controlled) NHAI, PWD, urban Admin., local Govts. Defence

(State controlled) GoI, State Maritime Boards, Port Directorates, TAMP

Terminals

(Partly Open) AAI, Defence, Private Consortiums


(Open to all) SRTUs, large industries, trucking companies, etc.

(Partly Open) Major Ports, GoI, State Maritime Boards, Port Directorates, Private & captive ports, TAMP

Rolling Stock (Open to all) IA, AI, private airlines


(Open to all) SRTUs, private vehicle owners

(Open to all) SCI27, GESCO28, ESSAR, Varun and others

Maintenance Services

Terminals (State Controlled) AAI

(State Controlled) Indian Railways, large captive industries

(Open to all) SRTUs, large industries, trucking companies

(State Controlled) Major ports, GoI. State Maritime Boards, Port Directorates, some private & captive ports

Rolling Stock / Equipment

(Open to all) IA, AI, other private airlines

(State Controlled) Indian Railways

(Open to all) Small scale garages, large workshops for SRTUs, private workshops

(Open to all) Port dry docks, ABG, Bharati Shipyards, CSL, HSL & HDPE

Operations

Terminals (Partly open) DGCA, AAI, private cos.

(State controlled) Indian Railways, large industries for captive sidings

(Open to all) SRTUs, large industries, transport companies, State warehousing corporation

(Partly open) Major ports, GoI, State Maritime Boards, Port Directorates, some private and captive ports

Rolling Stock (Open to all) IA, AI, other private airlines


(Open to all) SRTUs, private vehicle owners

(Open to all) SCI, GESCO, ESSAR, others

Customer Services

(Open to all) IA, AI, other private airlines


(Open to all) SRTUs, private bus operators, TCI, forwarding agents, etc.

(Open to all) Brokers, charterers, forwarding agents

Regulations

Licensing DGCA IR RTO DG Shipping

Pricing Market forces for private airlines, DGCA

Parliament, Railway Rates Tribunal

Market forces DG Shipping, TAMP, private ports

Service levels DGCA IR, Railway Claims Tribunal

Market forces DG Shipping

Source: Updated from (Raghuram 2000)

27 Shipping Corporation of India (State owned shipping company)

28 Great Eastern Shipping Company Pvt. Ltd.


In sharp contrast, a large number of organisations are involved in road transport including

Central Government (for highways and expressways), State Governments (for state highways

and PMGSY29), Defence Ministry (for border roads) and large industries and contractors (for

project roads). A few city Municipalities have organised truck terminals under supervision of

the local governments.

In road services, infrastructure and terminal maintenance is vested to private concessionaires

or else to national/state or local governments. Maintenance of the rolling stock and

equipment is largely managed by a vast number of small scale garages all over the country.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH), the Ministry of Urban Development,

the Rail Ministry, the Ministry of Shipping and the Civil Aviation Ministry have independently

chalked out different transport development strategies and identified areas of investment

specific to their transport sector.

The Ministry of Urban Development is responsible for formulating policies, supporting and

monitoring programmes and coordinating the activities of various Central Ministries, State

Governments and other nodal authorities related to urban development. The mandate

extends to urban transport policy making as well.

3.1.2 National Urban Transport Policy

To proactively address the issues of urban transport such as transport delays, accident risk,

deterioration of air quality and increased consumption of petroleum fuels impacting India’s

energy security, the Government of India announced a National Urban Transport Policy in

April 200630. The policy focused on the need to “move people – not vehicles”. The policy

measures were directed towards:

• Improvements in public transport and facilities for the use of non-motorised modes;

• Sought greater involvement of private sector in transport infrastructure development,

provision of public transport services;

• Innovative financing mechanisms to enhance efficiency and reduce the impact on public

budget;

• Better integration of land use and transport planning to reduce travel demand;

• Encourage the use of cleaner technologies;

29 Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana programme to build and maintain rural roads

30 http://www.urbanindia.nic.in/policies/TransportPolicy.pdf Retrieved on 30 August 2010


• Building capacity of urban transport planning at institutional level;

• Create awareness amongst people to muster support for initiatives that require tough

decision making and compromises that some people might need to make.

The NUTP acknowledges that freight traffic will grow substantially as cities, population and

economic activities expand. Timely and smooth freight movements are crucial for the well

being of the people and economic viability of the city. Amongst the policy measures proposed

are further encouraging:

• Using off peak passenger travel times to move freight;

• Earmarking late night hours for freight movements within the city and restricted

entry of heavy vehicles into cities during day time;

• Building of bypasses through public private partnerships for freight trucks enabling

such traffic to go around the city and not add to city traffic;

• All the wholesale activities are proposed to be located at the periphery of the city

along the major rail and/or highway rather than at the city centre, therefore

developing dedicated truck terminals for parking facilities for freight trucks outside

city limits through public private partnerships31;

• Parking spaces must be provided at appropriate locations on street/ off-street with

proper management and use of ITS. Appropriate parking fees should be levied to

manage the demand and reflect the cost of urban land used for the purpose;

• Planning of ring roads to relieve traffic congestion in the central area and also allow

balanced urban development. Similarly, bypass roads to be planned and

developments along such bypasses controlled to ensure that such bypasses do not

become arterial city roads in the future. All new satellite townships/ emerging

activity centres (SEZs) planned for future are either developed along defined major

transport corridors and/or integrated properly with mass transit systems in the Master

Plan itself;

• Implementation of Auto Fuel Policy approved by the Government of India in 2001 that

laid down the roadmap for tighter emission regulations up to 2010 for new vehicles

(See Table 7). Vehicles produced before the first mass emission norms in 1991 would

require to be replaced;

• Adoption of alternate fuel vehicles as an important step to clean the environment by

bringing industry into confidence and building a consensus on a roadmap indicating

31 National Urban Transport Policy


strict time frames for their adoption and supply for necessary fuel supply

infrastructure (See Table 7).

Table 7: Indian Auto fuel policy 2001

Vehicle Category

Bharat Stage II (entire country)

Bharat Stage III (11 metros)

Bharat Stage III (entire country)

Bharat Stage IV (11 metros)

Commercial vehicles

1 April 2005 1 April 2005 1 April 2010 1 April 2010

2 & 3 wheelers

1 April 2005 Preferably April 2008 but not later than 1 April 2010

Passenger vehicles

1 April 2005 1 April 2005 1 April 2010 1 April 2010

Source: (Chandra 2006)

Table 8: Proposed time frame for introducing cleaner vehicles

Time Frame Technology

Short Term Ethanol, CNG, LPG

Medium Term Bio diesel, Electric vehicles, Hybrid Electric Vehicles

Long Term Hydrogen / Fuel Cell

Source: (Chandra 2006)

The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways developed a legal and regulatory framework for

inspection, maintenance and certification of in-use vehicles in the country to improve air

quality and safety on the roads. Presently, vehicular emissions are governed under Section 56

of Motor vehicle Act and Rule 62 of Central Motor Vehicle Rules for commercial vehicles. The

procedure is for the vehicle owners to get their vehicles attended at dealer/private

workshops and to offer them for inspection to the Regional Transport Department.

Certificates are issued generally after visual inspection and normally valid for one year.


3.2 URBAN LEVEL (MUMBAI CITY LEVEL)

3.2.1 Institutional framework at the urban level of Mumbai City

A number of governmental organisations are involved in the urban freight and logistics sector

in the city of Mumbai for the development and management of transport infrastructure and

services in addition to the Mumbai Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM). They are

tabulated in along with their main responsibilities and functions in Table 9)32.

The current legal institutional arrangements for managing urban transport (passenger and

freight together) were developed at a time when urban transport was not a major problem.

As a result, there is a high degree of fragmentation and separate enactments covering

different transport modes. There is no dedicated administrative authority in India to

administer urban freight transport. The planning and implementation of urban transport

infrastructure rests with multiple agencies which do not necessarily work in a coordinated

manner. In most cities, the goods transport is fully deregulated and fares are governed by

market forces. Roads are built and managed by local bodies or State Public Works

Department.

Table 9: Governmental Organisations involved in urban transport in Mumbai

Governmental Organisations Responsibilities / Functions

Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM)

Construction & maintenance of flyovers and bridges Road up gradation Removal of obstructions, projections in and upon streets

Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport Undertaking (BEST)

To provide safe, efficient, affordable and courteous passenger services at an economic fare

Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA)

Planning & coordination of Mumbai Metropolitan region Responsible for the Mumbai Urban Transport Project

Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC)

Plan, investigate, design, construct, manage, promote and operate road projects & area development Invite tenders, bids, offers & contract for the above purposes

Maharashtra Maritime Board Port development in Mumbai


3%20Urban%20Governance%20Framework.pdf Retrieved 13 August 2010


JNPT & Mumbai Port Trust Integrated seaport facilities for handling, storage and delivery of cargo/container to customers

City & Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra Ltd. (CIDCO)

Land use planning and development of Navi Mumbai region

Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation Ltd. Management of the Mumbai suburban train services Implementation of rail infrastructure projects in Mumbai suburban stations Commercially develop railway land and airspace in Mumbai Raise funds for suburban railway development

Food Corporation of India (FCI), Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC), Maharashtra State Warehousing Corporation

Warehousing, clearing, forwarding, handling, transportation, procurement and distribution Additional Services such as disinfestations, fumigation and ancillary activities

National Airports Authority of India (NAAI) Airport cargo complex Indian Post air-sea & domestic parcel services Indian Airlines & Air India Air freight service provider

Goods transport within the city of Mumbai is fully privatised and regulated through the permit

system. The structure of the road goods transport is very complex and comprises of many

stakeholders including, transport operators, consignee/consignor, intermediaries – booking

agents/transport companies (who could be operators also) and brokers (who could be placed

on either side of the booking agents and normally work for a commission).

The different stakeholders (employers only) in freight transport are organised through

associations that strive to protect the interests of their members and lobby governments. The

different associations related to goods transport are listed as below:

1. Federation of Freight Forwarders Association in India;33

2. Mumbai and Nhava Sheva Ship Agents Association;34

3. Bombay Custom House Agent’s Association;

4. Bombay Goods Transport Association;

5. Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for Western Region;

6. Container Shipping Lines Association (India);

7. Federation of Indian Export Organisations;

8. Indian Institute of Packaging;

33 http://www.fffai.org/mission.asp Retrieved on 13 August 2010

34

http://www.startlocal.in/manufacturing_and_industrial/transport_forwarding_agents/maharashtra/Mu

mbai_Nhava_Sheva_Ship_Agents_Association_2102173.html Retrieved on 13 August 2010


9. Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce & Industry;

10. Western India Automobile Association;35

11. Indian Freight Club;

12. Air Cargo Agents Association of India;

13. All India Confederation of Goods Vehicles Owners Association (AIGVOA).

Trade and labour Unions in the interests of the employees in the urban transport sector and

employees in the industry are as follows:

1. All India Motor Transport Union;

2. BEST Pariwahan Karmachari Sangh;

3. Union Clearing Services;

4. Transport and Dock Workers Union;

5. BEST Workers Union;

6. Motormen’s Union (Mumbai Suburban railways).

The users of road freight transport are the manufacturers, distributors, retailers of goods and

the general public who are typically expected to represent the demand side of the market.

Operators are expected to provide the services in terms of movement (Sriraman et al. 2006).

The intermediaries seem to play a significant role in the provision of road goods transport

services. These can be normally of two categories: (1) Booking agents/Transport

companies/transport contractors and (2) Brokers / Commission agents/ Suppliers of Vehicles.

Booking agents are firms or persons who accept and store goods, both parcels and bulk and

arrange for their movement through operators. This agent acts as the owner of the cargo i.e.

he negotiates with and on behalf of the users (Sriraman et al. 2006). His responsibility is to

collect and distribute goods carried by goods carriages. He is also responsible for cargo loss

and damage claims while performing other customer service functions. In some cases, the

agents employ their own trucks and function as operators. In addition, agents also advance

money to operators (especially small ones) to help meet their working capital requirements

and by discounting bills on unloading.

A Broker normally represents the supply side i.e. the truck operators and is sought out by

truck operators for loads, though some have also represented user interests for a commission.

The broker takes a commission from the truck owners and ensures the supply of trucks to the

transport company/booking agent (Sriraman et al. 2006). Given that the dependence on small

35http://www.maharashtradirectory.com/industrialresources/manufacturers-associations-mumbai.htm

Retrieved on 13 August 2010


operators is significant, the broker ensures reliability of the operators (e.g. the movement

etc. for the user). Large fleet operators depend on these brokers for moving a certain volume

of traffic over and above what their own fleet would permit.

Surveys conducted by (Sriraman et al. 2006) found that there are three areas from which

most of the intermediaries operate. A significant location is the Masjid Bunder/ Wadi Bunder/

P. D’Mello (city) area. This has traditionally been the area of their operations especially till

the last decade, since only limited movement of trucks in the city (due to time restrictions)

have been permitted. With the shifting of some of the major wholesale markets to the New

Mumbai area and emergence of warehousing facilities in New Mumbai, Bhiwandi and Wadala,

intermediaries have begun operating from these three areas as well. Though the market in

the city area (in terms of intermediaries) is still significant at present, they are gradually

relocating to the new warehousing facilities in the Mumbai suburbs.

It is estimated that there are around 5,000 booking agents/ transport companies operating in

the Mumbai region (Sriraman et al. 2006). About 1,200 of these are formally associated with

the Bombay Goods Transport Association (BGTA) as members.

3.2.2 Mumbai’s Urban Transport Policy

One of the big challenges of achieving the objectives of National Urban Transport Policy is

controlling urban expansion and integrating city development plans with transportation plans.

To ensure this the Jawaharlal National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) for each city was

established to consolidate fragmented programmes and schemes under one umbrella. The

JNNURM requires cities to prepare a Comprehensive City Development Plan (CDP) as a vision

document before it is able to access funding from JNNURM (Chandra 2006). The CDP is

required to include a broad city investment plan that enlists priority projects for the city.

From CDPs received from the different cities in India, it was observed that the transport

projects in many cities were more of a compilation of requirements of individual

agencies/departments within the city administration and lacked an overall transport or

mobility plan. This showed the continuance of multiple fragmented decision making

departments for urban transport planning and the absence of a single agency responsible for

this (Chandra 2006). Road and bridge projects were proposed by public works departments or

State road development corporations, bus transport systems by transport departments and

metro rail systems by urban development departments.

MMRDA with the assistance of World Bank under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project initiated

a Comprehensive Transportation Study for Mumbai Metropolitan Region. M/S LEA International


Ltd. Canada in joint venture with LEA Associates South Asia Pvt. Ltd. was appointed by

MMRDA to carry out the study on January 2005. The main objectives of the study are to

identify travel and transport patterns of residents in Mumbai and recommend long term

comprehensive transportation strategy for MMRDA up to 2031.

According to the Comprehensive Transportation Study prepared by Lea Associates Pvt. Ltd.

for Mumbai Metropolitan Region (Lea, 2007), the vision is to transform Mumbai city into a

world class city in the next 10-15 years through a phased manner. In the Study urban freight

transport specific goals have been identified to:

• To facilitate and promote economic growth of the Region;

• To minimize adverse environmental impacts that may occur in the process of

economic growth;

• To improve efficiency of existing methods of resource mobilization;

• To adopt innovative methods of resource mobilization and facilitate, attract and

guide private investment in desired directions;

• To consider and evaluate significantly different strategies in the long term for

development of the Mumbai region;

• To support the goal of transforming Mumbai into a world class city with a vibrant

economy and a globally comparable quality of life.

The vision for the next 15 years will be reflected in the investment programme that will be

implemented in a phased and time bound manner.


44 MMEEAASSUURREESS UUSSEEDD IINN MMUUMMBBAAII CCIITTYY

4.1 INTRODUCTION

Long term transport strategy has been proposed for Mumbai Metropolitan Region based on a

detailed travel demand analysis conducted for the Comprehensive Transportation Study.

Upgrading road network, development of goods terminals and traffic engineering measures

such as flyovers, Road Over Bridges, Road Under Bridges, truck parking areas, traffic

markings, road traffic controls etc. have been the dominant strategies so far; although other

alternative strategies have been envisaged such as further capacity expansion and multimodal

transfer facilities for seamless movement of goods from one mode to the other have been

proposed and work on these projects are at different phases of implementation.

4.2 MEASURES USED IN MUMBAI CITY

Measures used in Mumbai for alleviation of traffic congestion have been a mix of land use

policy measures, development of new urban transport infrastructure and expansion of the

existing urban transport infrastructure network. These measures are categorised according to

its type and are briefly reviewed below:

1. Interventions for loading / unloading:

• Development of truck terminals, truck parking lots

Orderly planning for the expansion and location of truck terminals forms an important

objective in planning the transport system in Mumbai under the CTS Report. Based on the

detailed analysis of goods vehicle movements, new truck terminals have been proposed.

Approximately 44 major truck terminals have been identified in the study area. Five major

truck terminals and 10 mini truck terminals are proposed to be developed by 2031 taking into

consideration the expected Dedicated Rail Freight Corridor (DRFC), which is expected to

reduce delays occurring due to inter-mixing of port related and city traffic. These are

identified as follows:

• On Dedicated Rail Freight Corridor (DRFC), near boundary of MMR on NH-8 (Mumbai-

Ahmedabad);

• On DRFC, near Taloja Industrial area;

• Near JN Port Trust;


• Near the proposed international airport in New Mumbai;

• Near intersection of NH3 (Mumbai-Nashik Road) and DRFC.

The Wadala Truck Terminal is developed by MMRDA on 115 hectares of land, to move the

existing freight distribution centre from the Masjid Bunder area. The basic objective of

developing the Truck Terminal is to decongest South Mumbai by shifting the existing transport

companies offices and go downs, which are today concentrated in B&C Wards in South

Mumbai causing severe traffic congestion. It will also help to rationalize the movement of

truck traffic on the city roads. This is designed for a capacity of 3,000 trucks at a time with

all infrastructure facilities like offices and go downs of transport companies,

loading/unloading facilities, parking and idle trucks, banks, restaurants, dormitories, etc. The

truck terminal will have free access to Eastern Express Highway and Anik-Panjarpol link,

which forms the part of East Island Freeway. As economic activities gradually move north

from the island city, the potential advantage of Wadala Truck Terminal in terms of its

location will improve efficiency of freight distribution.

• Shifting of wholesale markets

In the 1990s a number of wholesale markets shifted from the South Mumbai to the New

Mumbai area in order to relieve the traffic from the congested south part of the city36. To

encourage relocation, MMRDA extended loan facilities for shifting the wholesale markets for

building construction, construction of wholesale market blocks, shops-cum-godowns, surfacing

of internal roads in the market yard, construction of well equipped central facility building

for the wholesale fruit and vegetable markets, etc. Shifting of wholesale textile markets from

South Mumbai to Bandra-Kurla Complex is under consideration.

• Restrictions on freight vehicles

Time and route restrictions on freight vehicles have been the preferred policy measures to

relieve congestion on city roads in India. In the case of Mumbai city, restrictions on hourly

and weekly periods of vehicle movements are regulated by the Mumbai traffic police. Mumbai

traffic police issue traffic restrictions and enforce it in the city of Mumbai. The Traffic

Control Branch regularly issues notifications to denote no parking areas on heavy vehicular

movement, animal driven vehicles, handcarts, bicycles and others37.

2. Emerging (actualised) concepts: 36 http://www.mmrdamumbai.org/projects_swm.htm Retrieved on 11 August 2010

37 http://www.trafficpolicemumbai.org/Notifications.htm Retrieved on 11 August 2010


• Demand management and road user charges

Traffic restrictions scheme based on number plates has been implemented for regulating

entry/exit to the Mumbai Metropolitan area. According to the scheme, vehicles with plates

ending with 1 & 2 would be bared entry into Mumbai on Mondays. Those with number plates

having the last digits 3 & 4 would not be allowed on Tuesdays, 5 & 6 on Wednesdays and, 7 &

8 on Thursdays and 9 & 0 on Fridays. Government and police cars, ambulances and emergency

vehicles would be exempt from the ban.

• Improvement of existing public transportation, network and fleet

Mumbai’s suburban railway system is used for passenger as well as freight movements for

intra-urban transport. For each suburban train at least 3 rakes are dedicated for goods

transport. To improve the suburban rail system the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP I

& II) was developed as per recommendations of the Comprehensive Transportation Study and

covers road and rail components. The thrust is to improve suburban rail system by adding rail

capacity along western and central lines and completing two key east-west road links. The

MUTP I (also called Bombay Urban Transport Project) concentrated mainly on improving the

bus transport system in Mumbai operated by the BEST by procuring buses, construction of

flyovers, installation of traffic signals etc. The MUTP I project was completed in 2008 and

MUTP II has been formulated by Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation to further improve suburban

rail system. MUTP envisages investment in suburban railway projects, local bus transport, new

roads, bridges, pedestrian subways and traffic management activities. The second phase

involves further optimisation of western and central lines and will take another 2-3 years. The

total project cost is estimated to be Rs. 3,700 crore and is awaiting clearance from the

Ministry of Railways, Government of India.

• Development of all north-south & east-west arterial roads and missing links

To reduce detour of freight and passenger movements in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, 3

major road infrastructure projects are underway to develop the main arterial roads and

missing links. They are:

a) Mumbai Urban Infrastructure Project (MUIP) to augment east west connectivity and

strengthening the north-south corridors by developing 17 high speed signal free

corridor with dedicated bus lanes on north-south and east-west links. It will focus on

improving the station areas. The project is ongoing with different components

implemented by MCGM, MMRDA and MSRDC costing Rs. 2,648 crores;


b) Mumbai Trans-Harbour Sea Link Project (Sewree to Nhava) to improve connectivity

between the island city and mainland by building a 22 km long six lane bridge through

to facilitate economic development in Mumbai Metropolitan region;

c) Development of Western Sea link is to develop additional north-south corridor on the

western flank of the city via 4 km long sea bridge from Western Express Highway to

Worli Sea face. A North-South link connecting Worli end of Bandra-Worli sea link is

now under construction to Nariman Point with a dispersal link connecting Cuffe

Parade. The alignment runs a major sea bridge of 14 km abutting the western shore

line.

• Development of freeways around Mumbai and connecting with the hinterland

In order to reduce congestion on the western corridor between Bandra and Nariman Point, the

Western Freeway (Worli – Nariman Point) is planned to be constructed via a 13.75 km sealink

upto Priyadarshini park combined with a tunnel under the Malabar Hill.

All the above infrastructure projects are implemented under the JNNURM scheme under a

Public Private Partnership basis framework. These projects were evolved in line with the

overall transport strategy for MMRDA of improving North-South and East-West connectivity by

provision of better road and rail networks as well as improving public transport system.


55 SSEELLEECCTTEEDD GGOOOODD PPRRAACCTTIICCEE

5.1 INTRODUCTION

Mumbai Dabbawalas (also spelt as dabbawallas or dabbahwallahs) or tiffinwalas are used as

the best practice case study for this deliverable. The Mumbai dabbawallas operations are

widely recognised as an outstanding example of excellence in urban logistics (Balakrishnan &

Teo 2004) (Jampani & Dutta 2004). Reportedly their mistake rate is just 1 in 16 million

deliveries (i.e. 99.999999% accuracy) which caused the Forbes Global magazine to award this

service the six sigma performance rating in 2001 (Mallik & Mukherjee 2007). Besides the

accuracy rating, the Dabbawala supply chain system has also attracted interests from global

educational institutions and think tanks for its complexity38.

A dabbawala (meaning one who carries the box), is a person in Mumbai whose job is to carry

and deliver freshly made food packed in lunch boxes from home to office workers. This case

study was selected because the lunch delivery supply chain has become famous for their

precision and efficiency.

The case study is about food distribution logistics employing public transportation system

(suburban railways) that is unique in Mumbai city. It is an indigenous model, conceived,

developed and perfected by a group of individuals who have very little or no formal education

in the area of logistics.

This section provides a detailed analysis of the content and decisions made by the Mumbai

dabbawalas in managing the system effectively.

38 Berkeley University in California teaches the logistic system of Dabbawalas as a case study in one of

their business management programs and many Indian business schools and industry associations have

the Dabbawala logistics system in their case-study agenda. In 1998 two Dutch filmmakers, Jascha De

Wilde and Chris Relleke, made a documentary called "Dabbawalas, Mumbai's unique lunch service" and in

2001, the Christian Science Monitor, the Boston-based newspaper, covered the Dabbawalas in an article

called "Fastest Food: It's Big Mac vs. Bombay's Dabbawalas" The British Broadcasting Corporation and the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation have done features on the delivery system as well, while Prince

Charles was so impressed with their service that he had even invited a few Dabbawalas to his wedding

with Camilla Parker in London.


5.2 THE DABBAWALAS OF MUMBAI

The measure is a case study of the dabbawalas or tiffin carriers of Mumbai. The logistics

business thrives on the Mumbai employees whose needs are to get a home cooked meal

respecting their culture and tastes.

The delivery of the lunch boxes is an excellent case study that showcases excellence achieved

in the informal sector, whose actors are proud of their rural roots and with the use of low

technology and effective organisation. The case study presents a private logistics service

organised in the informal sector and does not constitute any policy measure.

The dabbawala operations originated way back in 1890 when India was under British rule

(Mallik & Mukherjee 2007). At that time, people migrated for work to Mumbai from different

states and belonging to different communities. At working places there were no canteens and

many did not bring their lunches from home. Besides, different communities had different

food habits, tastes and preferences which could only be satisfied by a homemade meal.

Identifying this need, a gentleman named Mr. Mahadeo Medge started this lunch delivery

service (Jampani & Dutta 2004).

The Mumbai dabbawala operations are confined to Mumbai. The services include collection,

transportation and delivery of lunch boxes from home to office location in the morning. In the

evening the lunch boxes are moved in the reverse direction. A total number of 200,000 lunch

boxes i.e. 400,000 transactions are carried out per day on all working days throughout the

year. These services are available six days a week i.e. on 25 working days in a month. There

is no disruption to work as long as the Mumbai suburban rail network is functional.

The Mumbai Dabbawala system is organized as a co-operative movement, where the basic

entity is the dabbawala. Upto 8 dabbawalas makes up a team. Upto 8 of such teams would

form a group. There are 120 groups that together constitute the entire organization (Mallik &

Mukherjee 2007). The basic model of the selected good practice heavily depends on

teamwork and meticulous timing.

There are around 5,000 dabbawalas in the system at any moment of time. Each dabbawala is

assigned upto 30 customers in a specific geographical area. Each dabbawala visits his

customers for tiffin box collection using a fixed route by bicycle or walking. The household is

expected to keep the lunchbox ready when the dabbawala reports for collection, which is

usually between 7.00 am and 9.00 am (Ravichandran 2005). If the lunch is not ready the

dabbawala will leave for the next destination. After collecting approximately 30 of such lunch

boxes they are brought to the nearest suburban railway station for sorting and onward

transportation.


i) Dabbawala carrying dabbas from home to

nearest railway station

ii) Sorting of dabbas at railway station

iii) Dabbawala bicycling to the closest

Mumbai suburban railway station

iv) Re-sorting of dabbas at destination railway

station

v) Dabbawalas delivering dabbas in crates

from destination to end customer


Usually more than one team of dabbawalas operate out of a collection point in a railway

station.

At the originating railway station a team of designated dabbawalas sorts the lunch boxes

according to their destinations. The dabbas have a detailed and elaborate codification system

that facilitates the sorting process. The codification system clearly identifies the origin of the

lunch box, associated collection team member, destination, corresponding team leader,

destination, location, building identification and floor number (Unnithan 2001).

The dabbas are sorted based on the coding system at the closest origin railway station and

bundled into groups for origin to hub transfer using the Mumbai suburban rail services. The

origin to hub transfer normally happens in designated carts. These carts are loaded into pre-

determined compartments in the beginning or at the end of the train.

At the destination railway station, the dabbas are re-sorted based on final destination

(location, building and floor).The sorting and loading operations need care and are time

bound. The lunch boxes arrive at the destination railway stations by 11:30 am.

At each destination station, boxes are handed over to local dabbawalas (the last link in the

chain), who deliver them to the end customer at their office locations in time for lunch hour

by designated members. All dabbas are delivered before 1.00 pm.

The empty boxes after lunch are again collected at the destination railway station and sorted

to the respective origin location, placed on standard carts, loaded on trains and unloaded at

the respective origin stations by designated members. The dabbas are then finally taken to

individual households by the same dabbawala who collected them in the morning.

Usually, by 5.30 pm all dabbas are delivered to households and the dabbawalas retire for the

day.

To better understand the complex sorting process, let's take an example. At Vile Parle

Station, assume there are 20 teams of dabbawalas, each having 5 members and each member

servicing 30 customers. That makes 3,000 tiffins in all. These 3,000 tiffins are collected by

9.00 am, reach the station and are sorted according to their destinations by 10.00 am when

the 'dabbawala special' train arrives. The railway provides sorting areas on platforms as well

as special compartments on trains travelling south between 10.00 am and 11.30 am. During

the journey, these dabbawalas regroup according to the number of Tiffin’s to be delivered in

a particular area, and not according to the groups they actually belong to. If 150 Tiffin’s are

to be delivered in the Grant Road Station area, then 5 dabbawalas wait at that station,

keeping in mind one person can carry no more than 30 tiffins.

During the first sorting process, each dabbawala would have concentrated on locating only

those 30 tiffins under his charge, wherever they come from, and this specialization makes the

entire system efficient and almost error-free. Typically it takes about ten to fifteen minutes


to search, assemble and arrange 40 Tiffin’s onto a crate, and by 12.30 am they are delivered

to offices.

Coding System

Most of the dabbawalas have migrated from villages to Mumbai in search of jobs. Due to

economic hardship or lack of interest a majority of them have been educated up to primary

school level. Hence, the dabbawala delivery system has adapted the coding system

accordingly. Instead of technological solutions, the coding system is based on the exchanges

of dabbas between dabbawalas. The system uses unique codes for the railway stations,

origin/destination points and identity of the dabbawalas handling each dabba. For this, signs,

different colours, numbers and a few letters are used and same is clearly marked on each

dabba.

Figure 9: Coding system framework used by the Dabbawalas39

The codification system ensures complete traceability of lunch boxes in the system. It enables

material flow and tracking of individual boxes by detailed information which integrates the

knowledge and information of individual dabbawalas on route, origin, handling agent,

destination address, etc. The “address” of the customer is painted on the top by the

dabbawalas. The home address is not marked since the dabbawala knows by heart to which

places in his collecting area he has to pick up his dabbas. If a new customer appears in his

own collecting area, he will do the complete journey to check the address of delivery in order

to fix with the other dabbawalas in which manner it will be then delivered. He will have to

find who, on the way, will have a free place in his freight to take one more tiffin box up to

which place, and so on up to the very place of delivery. Once the chain has been established,

with all the necessary stops for exchange decided, it is possible to mark the address.

39 http://www.typocity.com/icon.htm Retrieved on 15 September 2010


Figure 9 depicts a sample set of codes that are marked on a 'dabba' that help to identify the

origin and destination points, help different groups of dabbawalas to identify their set of

'dabbas' at each leg of the journey and help sort the 'dabbas' at each juncture before they

make the onward journey. Since many 'dabbawallas' are illiterate, the coding system is

decided arbitrarily by the dabbawalas and known to all of them.

W1

W2

W3

W – WORK AREAS

Figure 10: Dabbawala logistics activity chart: home to work

5.3 STAKEHOLDERS

The dabbawalas’ service is a monopoly in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Six stakeholders

are identified that are directly involved in the provision of the dabbawala logistics system


(see Table 10). The main clientele for the lunch box service as explained above are office

going employees in the city of Mumbai (Pathak 2010). Their needs are to receive fresh food

from home at reasonably cheap costs on a regular, reliable and fast service such that the food

is at least warm when they consume it. These constitute the main requirement of the

customers.

As seen typically in the informal sector the dabbawala service does not make formal contracts

with its clientele. The whole system relies on trust. When the dabba delivery service is

commenced, service charges for a full month are collected in advance. Subsequently, money

is collected in the first week of every month and remitted to the muqaddam on the first

Sunday (Quien 1997). The range of customers includes students (both college and school),

entrepreneurs of small businesses, managers, especially bank staff, and mill workers. They

generally tend to be middle-class citizens who, for economy reasons, hygiene, caste, dietary

restrictions or simply because they prefer wholesome food, rely on the dabbawala to deliver a

home cooked mid-day meal (Quien 1997). New customers are generally acquired through

referrals. Some are solicited by dabbawalas on railway platforms. Addresses are passed on to

the dabbawala operating in the specific area, who then visits the customer to finalize

arrangements.

Table 10: Stakeholders directly involved in the Mumbai dabbawala logistics system

Parties/stakeholders Functions

Working people in Mumbai

Clients (receivers) of the dabbawala service

Family members of the working people Suppliers of filled lunch boxes for delivery to family member in CBD area

Canteens / catering services Suppliers of filled lunch boxes if home cooked food is not available

Employees of the dabbawala system Executing the dabbawala logistics service

Railway services The suburban Railway services are used to transport the tiffin boxes

Product manufacturers, service providers, retailers, etc.

Marketing of their products through the dabbawalas. Some are also customers of the service

Suppliers of the filled tiffin boxes i.e. family members of the working people in Mumbai

support the dabbawala in meeting no delays in delivering lunch boxes. While the end

customers, i.e. working people in Mumbai accept delivery at the ground floor level of their

workplaces at destination locations.


Canteens or catering service providers that cater to specific tastes are also hired to offer

value added services in the distribution system. When a customer to the dabbawala service is

unable to arrange home cooked food, he could opt for a canteen/catering service. The

canteens prepare wholesome food, pack them in the standard tiffin boxes at the appropriate

time and deliver it to the dabbawala who will then ensure it reaches the end customer. Of

course, the charges of this value added service also include the costs of the catering services.

It is not clear whether the dabbawalas receive a commission for employing a particular

canteen service.

The collection of the filled lunch boxes at the homes or canteens have to be ready at the

prescribed time assigned by the dabbawalas. When the dabbawala knocks the door, the tiffin

box should be ready. If not, then for 2-3 days the time is given to the customer to adjust for

punctuality (Pandit 2007). After that if the delay persists, the services are stopped as it

affects the services to other customers in the logistics chain. In this way, the system ensures

that bad customers are discouraged by which the service efficiency, operation and

profitability from existing customers is maintained.

The members of the dabbawala service system are delighted to work for the Trust as they are

supported by empowerment, compensation and a lifelong economic activity in the informal

sector which is uncommon in other professions atleast in the informal employment sector.

The suburban Railway services are employed for the main haulage of the tiffins. Every

dabbawala buys a railway pass which allows them to make unlimited trips on designated

routes for a period of time. The commuting passengers in suburban trains are generally

tolerant to the inconveniences caused to them by the dabbawalas activities in the

overcrowded, overstretched suburban rail transport services.

The dabbwala service is also used to market consumer products and services selectively to its

potential clientele. Realising the potential and reach of the dabbawalas several brands have

tied up with them to reach out to consumers. For example, the most recent promotion is the

one of confectionery company, Perfetti Van Melle India (PVMI). The company recently

distributed its newly launched liquid-filled, mango-flavoured candy, Mangofillz with each

tiffin box sent out. This is the first fruit candy from PVMI, as the other products are milk-

based or breath-fresheners and gums40.

40 http://www.afaqs.com/perl/news/story.html?sid=26629) retrieved on 17 August 2010


5.4 PRODUCT AND/OR SERVICE INVOLVED

The Mumbai dabbawala system is designed to collect, transport and distribute lunch boxes

routinely to its customers every working day (Mallik & Mukherjee 2007). The service not only

provides clean home food but it also delivers it safely against theft and pilferage. As bringing

home cooked food is the main service provided by the dabbawala system, the characteristics

of the goods and service requirements can be characterised as follows:

• Perishability – Home cooked food needs to be supplied within a short period of time

(typically 2-3 hours) and on time so as to ensure non-perishability of the food items at

the time of delivery;

• Size & easiness of handling – The Tiffin box in which the food is kept is typically made

of aluminium or stainless steel in which there are 4 compartment in order to keep

different kinds of food items separated. The outer container is typically of particular

size and water tight, which simplifies the transport and handling of dabbas with

relative ease even in tough metropolitan conditions like busy road traffic and

congested urban rail systems experienced typically in Mumbai;

• Special conditions - Adverse weather conditions like extreme heat or heavy rainfall

may delay the delivery and to a certain extent there might be special problems like

vehicles/rail accidents;

• Fragility - The dabbas used by the dabbawalas are made of aluminium casing and

therefore the food within is compactly arranged within a compartmentalised lunch

box. Even so, it needs to be ensured that the dabbas are not dropped or overturned

as the food may get mixed.

The efficiency of the dabbawalas ensures complete customer satisfaction as there is no delay.

The service is continuously innovated by offering new services, while riding on their core

strength of on-time and reliable delivery services. A few examples of their innovation are

introducing a new express delivery service (pick-up at 11am), linking with groups of

housewives to cook and supply dabbas for customers who prefer home-cooked food, work

with marketing agents and media houses to physically distribute promotional items, along

with the dabbas, to the offices or residences of their customers (Pathak 2010). The standard

dabbas used for the meal delivery have slowly given way to more elaborate and colourful

packaging, and the system has cleverly evolved to accommodate the request of customers

who want their meals to be delivered to them in a fancy and “appetizing” manner (Percot

2005).


5.5 FINANCIAL ASPECTS

Each customer of the dabbawala system is charged between Rs. 400 to Rs. 700 per tiffin per

month for the service depending on customer requirements, transport distances and

economic condition of the customer. Customised offerings (larger lunch box, special diet

requirements, etc.) are charged separately. The customer only needs to invest upfront, a

token sum to purchase the tiffin box to store the meals. Further negotiation of the price and

collection timings will be done between the customer and team leader. Generally, lower

income customers are charged lesser than others. It is up to the team leader to decide on the

final rates based on his judgement and consideration of the economic status of the customer.

The main cost items are wages, rail passes and rail freight charges. The members use the rail

network which charges Rs. 100 per crate and Rs. 180 per member per month. Each member is

paid a reasonable compensation of between Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 7,000 per month net wages after

meeting all expenses like railway monthly passes and capital costs incurred for purchase of

carts, crates and bicycles. The exact wages for each dabbawala varies according to the total

customers serviced, services provided and total origin-destination distance.

There are no large investments in the services of the dabbawala delivery system, since it is

primarily a labour intensive service. When a member is recruited he is obliged to buy his own

uniform and purchase a bicycle for himself. The bicycle is used by the member himself for

pickup and delivery. All these contribute to low operational costs and hence a reasonable

price for the end customer.

New recruits are initially hired on a salary. After evaluating their performance they are

offered membership (shareholders) of the trust and assigned to one of the groups by the

member who introduced him to the group. Each dabbawala is guaranteed a monthly income

and employment for life. As there is no retirement age, he may work as long as he is

physically fit. Each team is financially independent and serves its own customers without

hampering the interests of the others, but work together in the delivery process.

Each member pays Rs. 15 per month as contribution to the welfare fund which acts as an

insurance cover. The association provides various services to its members from this welfare

fund, including loan facilities for emergencies, education expenses for members’ children,

health care, etc. The balance of the savings goes to a charitable trust.

Other sources of revenue come from marketing. Realising the large customer base to which

the dabbawalas are in direct contact with, a number of business enterprises use the

dabbawalas to market their products and services by sending flyers to the end customers

through the dabbawalas. Donations from philanthropic institutions and fees received from

public speaking and presentations also constitute other revenue sources. A quarter of the


total revenues received from marketing activities go the Trust, while the rest are equally

distributed amongst all the dabbawalas.

5.6 TRANSFERABILITY POTENTIAL OF THE SELECTED GOOD PRACTICE

This section explores the potential transferability of the business model of the dabbawala

system to other cities and other companies. The following conditions are identified as unique

to the Mumbai dabbawala system which has sustained the service for so many years:

• Topography: The Dabbawala service has evolved in the context of Mumbai city whose

topography is linear. At the origin it is dispersed over a large area. At the destination it is

concentrated on a small geographical area. The traffic pattern is characterized by low

volume spread over a large area to high volume spread over a small area. The linear

geographic dimensions such as seen in Mumbai city is an important factor when considering

transferability of this particular service;

• Flexible infrastructure: The main mode of transportation employed in the dabbawala

logistics service is the regular and reliable public transportation system in the city i.e. the

suburban railway system. The entire operational area serviced by the Dabbawalas is

connected by a well developed rail infrastructure;

• Inexpensive public transportation system: Mumbai suburban rail services are inexpensively

priced. This keeps the cost low and hence affordable price to the customers. Lower price

induces volume and scale economies;

• Culture: Mumbai is a very cosmopolitan city where people with diverse cultures,

backgrounds and food habits migrated. The diversity of food habits makes it impossible for

local restaurants, canteens or fast food centres to fulfil specific tastes and needs of each

employee in a same place.

A lot of Indians employing the tiffin box service feel that getting home cooked food in the

office is a link between work and home that a lot of dabbawalas’ customers express as a

heartening feeling. A lot of people in the workplace insist that it is stressful to adjust to

other people (Percot 2005). In addition stressful and long hours of work coupled with long

travel in congested traffic conditions are a norm which induces fatigue. A lot of employees

feel that they have insufficient time to spend with their families and rest at home. For

them the delivery of lunch boxes and eating home cooked food forms a bonding with their

home and family members. Eventually some consider that hiring a dabbawala is also a

question of status. Mumbai people agree that nothing is better than home food as there is

no pleasure or dignity to eat standing in front of everybody;


• Service characteristics: The dabbawala service caters to the most basic and perpetual

demand of delivering home prepared ethnic food to Indian middle income executives

working in Mumbai. This market segment is expected to exist for a long time to come. The

only threat to its existence is the changing food habits of the customers, but this is surely

expected to be slow;

• Density and relative locations of the origin-destination: The distribution of the origin and

destination points plays an important role in the selection of a delivery system. Figure 11

shows 3 typical delivery organizations ideally suited for each of the spatial distribution of

origin-destination pairs.

Figure 11: Scarcity/Density of Origins/Destinations affects the choice of delivery

organization

Source: (Balakrishnan & Teo 2004)

In the postal delivery system, the origins and destinations are well spaced out within the

region. In such systems a hub and spoke system is typically employed. In Warehouse retailer

delivery systems, goods from the central warehouse need to be delivered to retailers spread

over the region wherein a zoning system is typically used. In this customers are grouped into

zones, each served by a sub-delivery unit. In the meal delivery system in Mumbai, origins are

spread out over a region with 70% of destinations clustered near a central area.

After considering the factors favourable to Dabbawala services, the following part explores

conditions for transferability of this best practice to other urban logistics operations:

Efficient and cheap (public) transport system:


The city needs to have an efficient and reliable (public) transportation system as its

backbone. An appropriately extensive network of the (public) transport system along with an

inexpensive charging system is a prerequisite to develop similar logistics services in other

cities.

Homogenous, regular and perpetual demand:

For transferring this best practice to the movement of other products, the product’s service

demand requires to be regular and perpetual (such as food for customers). Moreover

packaging of the product preferably needs to be homogeneous or standardized and handy for

efficient stacking in larger crates/containers as well as for fast loading/unloading movement.

Adaptation to local conditions:

The practicability of employing best practices from other case studies to one’s own logistics

services needs to be thoroughly analysed and local constraints and advantages have to be

leveraged in an innovative way.

Much of the success of the dabbawalas logistics system is attributed to its ability to evolve

continuously to adapt to local conditions rather than blindly following best practices imported

from elsewhere. This is evident in the coding system used to track the flow of dabbas within

the entire delivery network. While bar codes are common to modern day delivery system, its

high cost (relative to cost of the service) and the environment (manned by illiterate workers)

meant that the system was incompatible to the local conditions. The dabbawalas hence chose

to evolve a coding system that is understandable and simple to its workers, fully recognizing

the fact that its strength lies on its cheap labour and committed workforce. Since the system

is operated by strictly controlled but loosely linked groups, each group is allowed a certain

amount of flexibility in personalizing the coding system. Thus the ‘mukadam’ (the manager of

each operating group) can personalize some colors to differentiate the dabbas pertaining to

each of his group members.

Standard operating procedures:

Over the years the system has evolved an outstanding standard operating procedure which

ensures certainty in the operational model at any stage. Each member’s role is clearly

articulated and the codification system is perfect and well understood by all members.

Members are empowered to task execution. Fair business practices (equal compensation) and

joy of work, pride in the activity and fun mixed with work break the monotony of the

standard working procedure in this system.


Customer Focus:

Although the dabbawala service functions in a monopoly market environment, the service is

priced low to attract and retain relevant customer segment and base. The process is capable

enough to fulfill the assurances of service quality. The dabbawala association has elevated

the objective of their business as an opportunity to serve society by provision of food, which

for them is a higher motivating factor than an operational objective as a transport logistics

support to deliver lunch boxes.

Customer cooperation:

The dabbawalas do not wait for lunch boxes if they are not ready when they arrive for

collection at residences. The household understands the need to be punctual to support the

functioning of these services and extends appropriate co-operation. Such understanding

between the client and service provider is crucial for the effectiveness of the logistics service

system.

5.7 OTHER ASPECTS

A number of elegant management practices are unique to the dabbawala system and can be

adapted to local conditions in other urban logistics systems across the worlds. They are as

follows:

Organisational Structure

The Mumbai Dabbawala system is organized as a cooperative structure to symbolize equality

and fairness. The employees of the dabbawala delivery system constitute the main

stakeholders of this logistics system.

It has a three tier organizational structure which is readily scalable based on business

opportunity and volume. The three tiers are:

1. Panch Committee or Governing Council comprising of President and secretary – top

level;

2. Muqaddams (team leaders or supervisors) – middle level;

3. Gaddis or Dabbawalas – lower level.

Each dabbawala carries around 30 tiffin boxes. There are totally around 5,000 dabbawalas

with 800 member teams operating in different areas within the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.

Each team has between 5-7 dabbawalas depending on the service demand in their area of

operation. Each team is supervised by a Muqaddam (team leader). The Muqaddam’s role is to


supervise sorting of dabbas, to keep payment records, settle disputes, search new customers

and train new dabbawalas. Each group is financially independent but works together in the

delivery process. Each group serves its own interests without hampering the interests of the

other. The compensation is same at the group level following the philosophy of “equal work

equal pay”.

This structure is an optimal way of delivering centralized planning and decentralized

execution of business services. This structure also ensures attention to detail and

decentralization at the team level. As each member is associated with a fixed route and the

revenue opportunity is well integrated with the organizational structure.

The Governing Council holds meetings on the 15th of every month to discuss disputes,

operational issues and business policies. Muqaddams and Dabbawalas are entitled to attend

the meetings.

Human Resource Management Practices

The organization is built on a sense of pride of providing food to their customers and

belonging to the organization as they hail from the same ethnic group and wear a uniform

while at work. Mutual respect for individuals and empowerment are reinforcing features.

This is a great motivating factor to consistently improve their performance. After the delivery

of lunch boxes, the members break away from work to enjoy leisure time. There is 15 days

forced holiday every year to visit their family members in their villages. Members are

expected to conduct themselves to earn respect from public.

Members are motivated by a strong ethical work culture that is held strongly in their

community. The code of ethics is based on the following precepts:

• Work is worship;

• Serving people is serving God;

• Time is money;

• Unity is power.

These principles motivate the members to excel in their work and provide a feeling of

contentment, security, bonding and happiness from their activities.


66 EEVVAALLUUAATTIIOONN OOFF TTHHEE GGOOOODD PPRRAACCTTIICCEE

6.1 INTRODUCTION

Section 5 dealt with the analysis of the business model and operating procedures of the

Mumbai dabbawala system. From this analysis, the potential for transferability of the

dabbawala system to other cities and other products in freight logistics system was explored.

As a follow-up to that analysis, the present section evaluates the impacts holistically of the

dabbawala system from 4 different perspectives namely, transportation, local economy,

environment and society.

6.2 SPECIFIC URBAN FREIGHT DATA COLLECTED

With regard to the specific good practice, both quantitative and qualitative data was

collected for the purpose of the Dabbawala case study. The dabbawala system has been

popular in India and gained recognition worldwide after being awarded the Six Sigma title as a

best practice in urban logistics in India. Since then, it has been quoted as a best practice of

urban logistics in the Indian context. As a result a number of news articles, websites, reports,

publications, books, presentations and journal papers have been available. The dabbawala

system has been extensively written about from diverse perspectives (organisational,

operational management, economics, socio-cultural, anthropological, glamour etc.) to

identify its success factors and unique working model. Therefore a thorough literature review

was carried out as the first step in data collection.

Secondly, the dabbawala organisation was contacted and (open ended) interviews were held

with key members of the Trust to gather information of its history, work culture and present

challenges. The author also travelled with one of the dabbawalas in Andheri region for

collection of dabbas from the residences and observed the sorting activities to gain firsthand

experience of the business processes.

Thirdly, Mumbai city development plans, Comprehensive Transportation Study and news

articles on urban transport were collected to understand the strategic development of the

city. Interviews with transportation specialists within the Mumbai Metropolitan Region

Development Authority (MMRDA) were conducted to gather information about the problems,

measures and status of transport projects in Mumbai. These formed the main sources of data

for this case study.


6.3 IMPACTS

6.3.1 Transport impacts

In this subsection the impact of the dabbawala system on Mumbai city and its citizens is

explored in terms of travel times, goods volumes and delivery system efficiency.

Travel times

The dabbawala logistics system use walking, bicycles and suburban trains as the 3 modes of

collection, transport and delivery of the dabbas to their customers. The last mile i.e. from

railway station to the customer in the CBD area is transported by using handcarts. Mixed

traffic in Mumbai roads to a large extent aggravate congestion problems in the CBD areas

during peak hours. As common road space is utilised by the dabbawalas during morning peak

hours for the movement of the dabbas. This induces congestion especially near the railway

station.

On the other hand, dabbawalas are instrumental in reducing traffic congestion if seen from

another perspective. If dabbawalas were to employ motorised vehicles in the CBD area for

pickup and delivery, it could further aggravate congestion and contribute to slower

movement of traffic during peak hour traffic. This would also add to the problems of on-road

parking issues which would ultimately aggravate the traffic congestion levels on major

arterial roads. Time restrictions on heavy goods vehicle movements in most CBD areas would

force them to employ light commercial vehicles for delivery that would increase the number

of trips or number of vehicles causing more road congestion.

For example, if 15-20% of the employees in a commercial building within the CBD area were

to employ tiffin box delivery system, this would reduce the number of employees travelling

out of their work places for lunch, thereby, proportionally reducing mobility of people and

vehicles during lunch hours on working days. Although no surveys have been conducted to

verify the hypothesis, the authors are convinced that it could have a positive impact to

society by reduction of the amount of private vehicle trips, vehicle-kilometres and overall

travel times in the CBD areas. This ensures that workers and employees are well on time for

duty in the afternoon after lunch hours contributing to the man-hours on the job.

Goods volumes

The dabbawala system is scalable to the changing demand for this service.

As sorting, handling and transport of tiffin boxes are done manually, manpower forms the

main resource for adapting production capacity. Scalability of the dabbawala service is

ensured by a well developed apprentice program that ensures adequate personnel or slack


capacity to service is available at all times to cater to sudden changes in demand. Incase the

demand drops, the apprentices are temporarily laid off who then seek other employment

sources during slack periods.

Delivery system efficiency

The dabbawala system is greatly dependent on Mumbai’s suburban rail system for operation

and punctuality, without which the main haulage of tiffins would not be possible and the

delivery system would be non-functional. The ‘last-mile’ delivery to the final destination is

relatively slow. Although one could argue that it could have be even slower if vehicles were

used in its place, because of the low average peak hour vehicle speeds (16-17km/hour) and

difficulties in flexibility and manoeuvrability imposed by road restrictions and parking for

commercial vehicles within the CBD area.

6.3.2 Economic impacts

After discussing the impacts on transportation, this subsection throws light on the economic

impacts of the dabbawala system on public and private actors namely, Mumbai city and

citizens and companies.

To city and citizens:

The employment of public transportation and non-motorised modes of transport (walking and

bicycling) for the “last mile” collection and deliveries, contributes to drastic reduction of

operational costs in the dabbawala delivery system. These cost savings are transferred to the

end customer. This makes the service attractive for the lower middle class employees who

constitute the target market segment for the tiffin box delivery services in Mumbai.

The use of hand carts for “last mile” deliveries in the CBD areas allow the dabbawala system

the increased manoeuvrability in negotiating narrow lanes and byroads in addition it helps

them to temporarily park at the building that needs to be serviced, thus contributing to

efficient and timely delivery system. This would have been otherwise difficult as lack of

parking areas, road congestion and traffic regulations within CBD areas would deter the

efficient delivery or collection of tiffin boxes. Another advantage is that the delivery space

required (in area on the road) for the hand carts is smaller than for a motorised vehicle

carrying an equal number of dabbas.


The dabbawala services have contributed to the positive image of the city. The uniform41

wearing dabbawalas are a common site to see during working days in Mumbai city and have

become a symbol of the megapolis. Their humble and friendly nature is endeared by the

majority of Mumbai citizens. Their widely publicised interactions with VIPs such as Prince

Charles and Richard Bransen have gained them international fame and recognition. These

publicised events have attracted curiosity and admiration from people not just in Mumbai and

India but also across the world.

The dabbawala service is recognised as an outstanding example of service delivery and is the

most talked about Indian example of excellence in logistics operations. Several academic

institutions routinely invite dabbawala representatives to make formal presentations to

compliment and include their case study in their coursework. Also, senior management of

many Indian businesses introduce dabbawala system as a case study in their meetings and

reviews to motivate their managers towards adopting world class systems.

The dabba system has enhanced the employment opportunities for illiterate and semi-

illiterate people in the informal employment sector in Mumbai. The dabbawala system offers

sustainable means of livelihood, economic security and the feeling of legitimacy to its

members, mainly consisting of migrants from rural areas from the Pune region.

To companies:

The virtue of using the existing public transport system as the main transport mode, low wage

structure and manual operations has greatly reduced the overhead costs, operational costs,

logistic complexity and management costs. The fleet used in this system consist of low cost

modalities (i.e. bicycles), which makes the investment costs relatively low.

The dabbawala system is used by many consumer product companies and media services as a

marketing means to launch new products or promote existing products and services with a

particular market segment. This forms a new source of revenue for the dabbawalas while is a

relatively cheaper and simpler means of targeting specific market segment for companies.

6.3.3 Environmental impacts

Due to the use of non-motorised means of transport for freight logistics activities, the

dabbawala system does not contribute directly to the pollution in the city of Mumbai. In this

41 White shirt and pant plus a small white cap popularized by Nehru, the first prime minister of India are

the traditional dress code of the dabbawalas.


section, the environmental impacts of the dabbawala logistics system on the different

stakeholders are explored.


As described earlier, the use of environmental friendly vehicles in the full logistics chain has a

tremendous positive environmental impact on the city and its citizens. As no motorised

vehicles are used for this logistics system, fuel consumption and hence direct emissions such

as such as CO2, CO, HC, NOx, PM and SOx from their activities are totally eliminated, although

indirect emissions from use of trains could be included in their carbon footprint.

The logistics system also has a positive impact by reduction of vehicular noise related

pollution. Dabbawalas sing devotional songs in chorus during their suburban train journeys as

a means of breaking the monotony of work, as well as for entertainment and spiritual

progress. Although loud and noisy for some commuters, the melody and rhythm of the

devotional songs are liked by majority of the co-passengers that travel in the same train.

To companies:

By far, the dabbawala system is a best practice also in terms of its environmental friendly

image because of its “zero emission” activities, at least directly. Since the lunch box delivery

system is one of its kind in Mumbai, the positive image as environment friendly service

matters little in attracting or retaining its customers. Moreover, road traffic regulations and

pollution norms imposed by the authorities have no impact on the dabbawala activities as

they do not operate motorised vehicles.

6.3.4 Social impacts

The dabbawala service impacts society in many ways. This subsection elaborates on the social

impacts of this delivery system on city, its citizens, companies and employees.


A majority of commuters in the suburban railways in Mumbai during the peak hours are

familiar with the dabbawalas and their activities. A majority of the regular commuting public

is tolerant to the inconveniences caused by them in the already overcrowded overstretched

suburban rail transport system. Over a period of time the Dabbawalas have become an

essential component of modern Mumbai.

Dabbawalas deliver the dabbas by hand carts in Mumbai’s CBD areas. These handcarts are

pushed by a number of dabbawalas at the side of roads and streets leading to their

customers. As the hand carts are pushed at slow speeds, the risk of injury to pedestrians from


collision with the hand carts is inconsequential. The road space is also preferred to footpaths,

because the footpaths are poorly maintained. Also a number of obstructions on footpaths

from street hawkers and pedestrian flows restrict the free movement of these carts

A number of advantages of employing the dabba service by its customers are recorded from

various surveys conducted in different studies. At first sight it would seem logical that office

going people carry their own tiffin boxes themselves to work. However, knowing the travel

conditions in suburban trains during peak hours in Mumbai it is easier to understand the

difficulty involved in holding a tiffin box in addition to a briefcase that most employees use to

take with them (Percot 2005). Secondly, the dabbawala offers a link to home for its

customers that are mainly constituted of lower middle class and middle class people. A lot of

its customers travel and work long hours and therefore find inadequate time to spend with

their family. For them, the dabbawala service is an actual link with home as it not only offers

home cooked food but also is used as a letter box to communicate written information and

messages inserted inside the tiffins between family members at home and workplace. By

delivering to each employee this tiffin filled with home cooked food, dabbawalas cater to

individual tastes of an estimated 200,000 customers in a megapolis city such as Mumbai where

the diversity of Indian food habits is difficult to cater to in restaurants. Also the high cost of

living makes it unaffordable for many to eat outside regularly. For many, the diet restrictions

are a reason for people to employ the dabba service.

To companies/employees:

The dabbawala profession was perceived as transitory employment in the hope of

subsequently obtaining a job in the organised sector. This notion is however no longer present

in the dabbawalas’ minds. Although it is often someone’s choice which determines entry into

the profession, the dabbawalas are nevertheless lucky to get into the informal sector as this

is also not always simple.

The dabbawala service has a positive impact on society as it has provided a source of stable

livelihood, job security and means of economic independence in the informal sector to atleast

5,000 members at any given time. Their traditional Maharashtrian uniform is for them the

symbol of their community. Numerous ceremonies are organised such as common prayers in

Mumbai temples, annual pilgrimages or music festivals where they reaffirm their solidarity

and contribute to unity of the group. A 15-day forced holiday per year is imposed on each

member to visit his hometown. Members express pride in having devised this system when

they were illiterate. A few others acknowledge advantages in this work are independence,

freedom as well as comfort and support by working amongst a network of family members.


The job for each dabbawala is specified to collect, transport and distribute tiffin boxes of

upto 30 customers in a pre-assigned geographical area every day for 25 working days in a

month. This is physically demanding and strenuous job as each member should be able to

carry 30 tiffin boxes (which could weigh up to 100 kg) on their head and walk 2-3 km

effortlessly. The work hours are between 8.30 am to 5.00 pm with an appropriate rest period

of 2.5 hours. They travel in the train along with lunchboxes every day. The regular travel by

dabbawalas on over-crowded suburban local trains is also an occupational hazard. The sorting

and loading operations are time bound. They are carried out in public spaces and are usually

congested. Women are discouraged from employment in this delivery system because it

involves hard manual labour and the employees have to face tough working conditions.

Since the road space is preferred by the dabbawalas to footpaths, there is relatively more

danger (speeding vehicles and errant drivers) to the safety of dabbawalas. A number of

accidents have been reported which have led to injuries of some dabbawalas and even death.

However, this job has also positive sides. The members are never laid off unless they get sick

or meet with an accident or retire. This is not commonly seen in the informal employment

sector or in any private sector in India. Though the members have been living in the city for

years, they persist to claim their rural origins which contribute to their feeling of unity and

identity.

6.4 IMPLEMENTATION OF MEASURES

6.4.1 Specific changes needed to implement measures

The dabbawala system is unique, home grown model developed by a group of individuals with

little or no formal education in the area of logistics. It has been unique to the city of Mumbai.

Although it has been tried in other cities and the brand name used in other cities for

marketing purposes, the scale of operations and size of network of the Mumbai dabbawala

service network is not found in any other city in India. So, comparison of measures is not

possible. There were no changes like any infrastructural changes made in Mumbai city to

support the activities of the dabbawala logistics services.

The business model of the Pune dabbawalas is different from that of Mumbai dabbawalas. The

Pune dabbawalas complement the work of canteens by provision of a home delivery service.

In Mumbai, the unique distribution system is demonstrated by the transfer of the dabba

through the hands of at least 4 dabbawalas during its door to door journey. This exclusivity

can be attributed to the generally linear topography of the city and the presence of the

suburban railway network both of which have facilitated the creation of the delivery service.


The dabbawala system has evolved continuously making the best use of existing infrastructure

and available resources. The following measures could support the activities of the dabbawala

service system:

• On the arterial roads in the CBD areas, it is recommended to allocate dedicated road

lanes for the movement of slow traffic which could be used by the dabbawalas for

safe and comfortable movement of their loaded carts within the CBD area;

• On the local suburban trains, a dedicated goods compartment for the dabbawalas on

local suburban trains plying during the period and days of their operations (10am –

noon and 2pm to 4 pm) will offer comfort to the dabbawalas in their strenuous train

journeys and to the other travellers;

• Use of information technology to market their services, attract job seekers and offer

better opportunities to their workforce. The dabbawala service is registered with the

JustDial local search engine in Mumbai who provide the mobile numbers of

dabbawalas operating in their area. A potential customer can directly call the

muqaddam and negotiate for starting of the tiffin delivery services. There is scope for

further exploiting IT technology by developing and managing their own website. In

addition, by participating in social networking platforms such as Facebook, Orkut,

Twitter, etc. Dabbawala Trust could market their services in Mumbai Region more

effectively.

6.4.2 Integration aspects

Although the dabbawala service has been operating for over 100 years there has been no

urban transport policy made to support their activities. It was not the city’s transport

infrastructure or services that supported the dabbawala system, but the dabbawala system

that evolved making the best use of the local conditions and available resources.

6.4.3 Acceptability

The dabbawalas are accepted as a part of Mumbai culture for the kind of invaluable service of

connecting the people with their families through the means of home cooked food

distribution.

The dabbawalas have gained customer cooperation through trust generated over long years in

the same business. The dabbawalas do not wait for lunch boxes if they are not ready at the

collection points. Households subscribing to the dabba service system understand the


importance of being punctual and thus support the functioning of the dabba service and

extend cooperation.

The rail commuting public is largely tolerant to the inconveniences caused by the dabbawalas

in the overcrowded and overstretched suburban rail system of Mumbai. Over a period of time

the dabbawala system has become an essential element of modern city of Mumbai.

The dabba service system has no competition in its core business of delivering home-cooked

food to its customers. Also other urban logistics businesses feel less threatened by the

dabbawalas as their organization is reluctant to diversify their services to deliver other

products or take up more complex delivery systems.

Marketing agencies have realized that dabbawalas have personal contact with a sizable

population of a particular market segment. Therefore, their services are utilized as a

marketing medium for product promotions.

6.4.4 Bottlenecks/barriers

The business of dabbawalas has gone through major challenges in the last few decades. A

substantial customer base of the dabbawalas was lost with the closure of textile mills in

Mumbai and the arrival of in-house canteens in schools and corporate office establishments.

Other factors such as disposable incomes, women holding full time jobs, proliferation of

nuclear families from traditional joint family structure and changes in the operating

environment have eroded the customer base. This could be because of many reasons. There

may be no family member at home to prepare home cooked food. Or canteen food at

workplace may be attractive to the CBD employees.

Changes in the dabbawala operating system have come about when business activities began

to move to the new Mumbai business districts which are further inland from the rail networks

in the last years. This has further complicated the already intricate distribution network.

The dabbawalas have evolved to face the above challenges by adapting their business

practices to the changing market conditions by continuously innovating, offering new services

while riding on their core competence of on-time and reliable delivery services. Some of the

innovations have been as follows:

• Introduction of express delivery service with a pick up at 11am;

• A linkage with a group of housewives to cook and supply dabbas for customers who

prefer home-cooked food;


• Working with marketing agents like the brand management teams to distribute

product samples alongwith dabbas to the offices;

• Standard dabbas given way to more elaborate and colorful packaging according to

customer requirements;

• Advertising of the dabba service by putting stickers on the dabbas

6.4.5 Success and failure factors

The noteworthy achievement of the Mumbai dabbawala logistics service has been the

adaptation of their operations to the local conditions and available resources as well as

innovation to provide new value added services without sacrificing core competence of

reliable and punctual services on a regular basis.

There are several complimentary aspects which provide exclusivity and uniqueness to the

Mumbai dabbawala logistics service. The first and foremost is the business model that is based

on inexpensive and reliable public infrastructure service. This coupled with the high volumes

of service built over a period of time provides an unparalleled advantage to the dabbawala

service system of Mumbai (Ravichandran 2005). The service has evolved over the Mumbai

topography that is linear. The logistical pattern is such that the origins are dispersed over a

large area while destinations are concentrated over a small geographical area. The availability

of cheap labour for this activity is a prerequisite for this activity. Finally the need and

preference for home based food are important contextual uniqueness specific to the Indian,

particularly Mumbai population.

Unless all the above unique conditions are met in other cities, it might be difficult to

integrate the dabbawala delivery in another city or country in the same way as is done in

Mumbai. The lesson learnt from this case study is that the each urban logistics system will

have to continuously evolve over a period of time to develop customized services that best

fits to its customer requirements and city profile within the constraints of available resources.

One of the important characteristics of the Dabbawala business model is its scalability i.e.

the property of the dabbawala system to accommodate changes in transaction volume

without major changes to the system. This is possible because of an elaborate apprentice

system prevalent in the organization that provides the required manpower. Secondly, the

tiffin box tracking system is an inexpensive variation of the online tracking system relying on

punctuality, trust and co-operation. And thirdly no capital investments are required as

additional costs of the necessary equipment such as bicycle or hand cart are borne by the

new member himself and therefore when he leaves the member gets to keep his bicycle. The


size, scalable nature of operations, modular structure, customer service and negligible errors

has kept competition away from this attractive business proposition.

Human Resource Management practices are built on member’s pride in work. The members do

not consider themselves as logistics providers but see the job as an opportunity to provide

food to their customers which is a source of pride for them. It is a great motivating factor.

This is supported by a cultural uniformity as all of them belong to the same community and

the system has a well developed apprenticeship development programme. These are some of

the success factors for the sustainability of the dabbawala business model for over a century.

Up to the 1960s dabbawala profession was viewed as a temporary means of employment until

the youth finds another job in the informal sector (Percot 2005). But this notion changed ever

since the association evolved to provide job security, sustainable livelihood and a social

support system for its members that have similar rural backgrounds. This social security is

uncommon in the informal employment sector in India and therefore is a strong success factor

for employee retention.

Although the dabbawala service has been operational for more than 120 years, it has catered

to a specific market segment and customer segment. The simplistic lifestyle of its members

coupled with lack of formal education could be some of the reasons for the absence of

enterprise and initiative to diversify their business into other commercially lucrative urban

logistics markets, customer segments or into other cities. This could be treated as a sort of

‘failure’ of the trust to diversify their business to other related logistics businesses.


77 CCOONNCCLLUUSSIIOONNSS

The report initially made an overview of India and Mumbai city’s transport profile in the

macro context. Existing transport infrastructure for intra-urban transport has been primarily

road and suburban railways. Almost 90% of the city’s population depends on the public

transport system for their mobility needs. With the growth of the population, private

motorized vehicles, the demand for transport and road space has grown tremendously. Public

transport infrastructure has not been able to keep pace with the demand growth, which has

had negative externalities such as road congestion, overcrowded trains, air pollution, high

rate of accidents etc. and at a macro level dependence on fossil fuels and ultimately the

health and well being of the city’s population.

In India, the institutional framework at the national, state and urban level is fragmented with

a number of departments and agencies managing different aspects of transportation. Due to

the lack of inter-departmental coordination and clear strategic policy goals, the

transportation system as a whole suffers from good integration and connectivity. In the

Mumbai Metropolitan Region a number of large infrastructure projects are ongoing not only to

increase infrastructure capacity along the main North-South transport corridors, but also to

improve north-south and east-west connectivity. Projects for alternative transport modes

such as the Mumbai metro project, the Mumbai monorail project have been initiated to

unburden existing public transport system. Discussions are ongoing for starting new passenger

services to connect the island of Mumbai to the mainland. Although this report focuses on

urban freight transport, certain aspects of the public transport system are also mentioned

because the dabbawalas depend on the public transport system for their tiffin box delivery

system.

After a brief overview of the Mumbai city’s governance structures, present problems and

policy measures underway, the business model of the Mumbai Dabbawala service system was

analysed. One of the remarkable achievement of the dabbawala system has been that change

in the last 120 years since its inception, has not affected the success of the dabbawala

system. This can be attributed to a number of success factors as listed below:

• The dabbawala system is based on strong value and ethics of service to society by

delivering food. This is a source of motivation to its members;

• The delivery system has evolved a simple system to handle large operations with

negligible error;

• The organizational model is almost flat with 3 tiers. It relies on a modular, scalable

and flexible system with sufficient extra capacity;


• The services are customer centric and employee driven;

• Management practices are intuition based (coding system) taking the employee skills

into consideration;

• Several factors specific to Mumbai such as cheap manpower availability, demand for

home food, urban transport infrastructure and linear geography have contributed

towards establishing this excellent business model based on innovative approach to

satisfy a perpetual demand.

From the perspective of transferability of this best practice, we realize that the core business

of home-cooked food distribution may not be a viable business elsewhere as culture plays a

strong part in the demand side of the business. Even so, the delivery system could be applied

to a local product with characteristics of perpetual demand and homogeneity. Transfer of

management practices and operational procedures of the dabbawala system are worth

exploring in other cities in the world.

The first and the most critical factor in terms of transferability proposition is the utilization

of relatively cheap transport system for urban logistics (e.g. bicycles, public transportation,

etc.). This would allow cost reductions to make the urban logistics services attractive, which

could lead to the generation of formidable business volumes over a period of time.

Another important operational aspect of the dabbawala delivery model is its scalability and

member driven logistic activity. The availability of additional trained personnel allows

flexibility to scale up the logistics operations at short notice. Secondly, flat organizational

structure and empowerment of personnel to manage their own day to day operations provides

harmony, synergy and symphony. Tracking mechanism is an innovative and inexpensive

variation of online tracking system which makes it inexpensive. Even so this simple

codification system of tiffin boxes may be seriously constrained to handle multiple products

with deliveries in many directions. A lesson learnt is to develop a tracking system that is

simple, user-friendly, cheap and locally executable.

This case study demonstrates that the informal sector are capable of managing a complex

urban logistics system as efficiently and effectively as any other logistics company in the

organized sector. The uniqueness of this urban logistics case study has been the efficient and

effective utilization of Mumbai’s cheap public transport system (suburban commuter rail in

this case) as the main mode of transport. This aspect has a potential for transferability

especially in cities where public transport services are reliable, regular, cheap and with the

network that is well connected.


To replicate the dabbawala model in other cities in totality may not be practicable, because

it caters to a specific market and customer segment. Therefore any urban logistics activity

fully based on this would inherently have less universal transferability unless it is applied in

other cities having similar linear topographies, cheap public transport system and the need to

transport homogeneous products with characteristics of perpetual and regular demand.


88 RREEFFEERREENNCCEESS

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