Urban update february 2014

Setting The Agenda For Tomorrow’s Cities February 2014

All India Institute of Local Self Government

STANDSTILL

ON THE MOVE?

Urban Transport

Long tailbacks in most cities raise one big concern: something is amiss about our urban transport system

UrbanUpdate

Shaping future m

obility

What went wrong with Delhi BRTS

Life in a parking lot

Tapping new taps

Mumbai: Cries for cure

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04 February 2014 | www.urbanupdate.in

Dr. Jatin ModiPresident-AIILSG

Ranjit ChavanEditor-in-Chief & PublisherDirector General-AIILSG

EditorialApresh C MishraManaging Editor

Nirmal Anshu RanjanExecutive Editor

Lojy Thomas, AIILSGAssociate Editor

Jessy IypeDesk Editor

….……………………………………………Meenakshi Rajput

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Neha SharmaMarketing Manager….……………………………………

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Mindset change will propel cities

n p r e c e d e n t e d growth of migrant population is push-ing cities to the

brink. Rise of the urban middle class, pride of owning vehicle, cit-ies going vertical and insufficient infrastructure are some of the fac-tors adding up to make urban traf-fic chaotic.

In fact, lack of policy has been the prime culprit that precipitated traffic nuisance in the coun-try. While we tried to maintain the pace of economic growth, we neglected livability in the cities. We did not integrate transport in urban planning. Failing to foresee the pace and volume of ur-ban transport demand, and neglecting the transport infrastruc-ture, we went on promoting car sales for the sake of boosting economy.

As the country grapples with the urban transport challenges, there is an urgent need to focus on the issue from different stake-holders’ viewpoints – as a planner, as an executor of the plan and finally as citizens as its end beneficiaries.

It is a general tendency among the citizens to flaunt car owner-ship as a status symbol, though both price and time are best uti-lised in public transport. There seems a need to educate citizens that they have a right to mobility and that they need to hold the city accountable through communication and technology.

There is also a need to treat public transport as a public ser-vice similar to water or electricity, and therefore, consistency and efficiency should only be expected. Travellers, particularly the younger lot, should be given greater say in decision-making and evaluating efficiency. This may be helped by investments in IT infrastructure to disseminate information and facilitate commu-nication.

At the local and regional governments’ level, there is a general lack of capacity. A more detailed planning for attracting invest-ment and supporting demonstration cities can be two ways of augmenting local capacity. Decentralisation of the decision-making power, hitherto confined to state transport departments, and sharing it with local authorities is highly recommended.

Similarly, there are distinct challenges in implementing a na-tional vision of and policy for urban transportation, as there are huge variations in the capacity, size and support associated with individual cities. The government needs to develop multilevel mechanism for implementation.

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February 2014 | www.urbanupdate.in 05

CONTENTS

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06 Newscan42 Products44 Events46 Urban Agenda

14 Urban Transport: Standstill Or On The Move?

22 6 Mistakes Delhi BRTS Made

24 4 Dimensions For Shapping Future Mobiliy

26 Mumbai: Cries For Cure

30 Life In A Parking Lot

34 Tapping New Taps

36 Nagpur’s Tryst With Planning: No Fuss About Funds

40 ‘Will Double Bed Count In Hospitals In Same Budget’

Cover Story

Centre Stage

Products Events

LeaderSpeak

Interview

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Indians find fuel in plastic wasteWASHINGTON: In a breakthrough, Indian researchers have developed an innovative method to re-use discarded plastic bags by transforming them into fuel for power.The scientists developed a relatively low-temperature process to convert certain kinds of plastic waste into liquid fuel as a way to re-use plastic bags and other products. Among the plastic waste is the common polymer, low-density polyethylene (LDPE), medical and laboratory equipment, computer components and plastic bags.The process, reported in the International Journal of Environment and Waste Management, could reduce pressures on landfill as well as ameliorate the effects of dwindling oil supplies in a world with increasing demands of petrochemicals for fuel.

Bihar town is world’s first ‘green city’PATNA: Bhabua in southwest Bihar has been officially declared “green city”. It has in all probability become the first town in the world where all buildings on the main thoroughfares have been painted green.The people of Bhabua have painted the town green voluntarily, using personal resources. The idea to paint the town green and make it environment-friendly was mooted by Kaimur District Magistrate, Arvind Kumar Singh, who took a leaf out of Jaipur’s “Pink City” book. Jaipur was painted pink on the royal orders of Sawai dynasty in 1878, to welcome the Prince of Wales.

Naya Raipur city shaping up to be the ‘model city of the 21st century’

Tata Capital launches ‘solar forest’NEW DELHI: To put the efficacy of solar energy into practice, the financial arm of the Tata Group, Tata Capital, launched a solar panel-equipped forest called Surya Aranya at the i-Think Techno Campus at Thane in Mumbai to spread awareness about renewable energy. The solar forest consists of a set of six solar panelled trees that will self-illuminate and power the garden and security lights on the campus from dusk to dawn producing close to 750 watts of energy.

6 Indian cities among top outsourcing hubs

BENGALURU: The Garden City remains the most attractive IT/ITeS outsourcing location in the world, and six Indian cities are part of the top 10 most attractive outsourcing locations, says the latest annual ranking by consulting firm Tholons. The other cities are Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune. The 2014 edition of this survey points that several Indian Tier-II cities have significantly improved their attractiveness over the past year.

Waste collection goes hi-tech in ChennaiCHENNAI: Studies say that Chennai’s per capita waste is highest in the country. This has led to cropping up of several waste management organisations in the city to collect waste at doorstep at just a click of the mouse. All one has to do is to register one’s complaint on the website of the given area’s waste managing agency, which collects it within 48 hours. “We have around 15,500 clients in Chennai. We have a schedule that covers every area in the city in 30-45 days,” claims Joseph Jegan, founder of one of the trash managing companies in Chennai.

Metro rail proposal for Nagpur approved

NEW DELHI: In a breather for the Maha-rashtra metropolis on public transportation, the cabinet recently approved the metro proposal for the city.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said that a spe-cial purpose vehicle will be set up for the project.The state government had consulted the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) about the metro service in Nagpur. It was almost a decade back that a technical survey was conducted by Larsen & Toubro on behalf of Nag-pur Improvement Trust (NITT) for a Metro Rail for about 70-90 km route in the city. The metro rail projects executed in some cities, including Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata, have met with huge success.

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Royal Bombay Yacht Club Residential Chambers: This 19th century building in Mumbai has been awarded the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Award

French cos keen to partner with K’takaBENGALURU: Some French companies are keen on sharing technical knowledge and partner-ships with the Karnataka government in key sec-tors like urban develop-ment, water and waste management, higher education, systems integration, energy and transport. In the Garden City on a two-day visit recently, the delegation held talks with Karnataka Chief Minister Siddara-maiah, Chief Secretary Kaushik Mukherjee and Governor H R Bhardwaj. Companies like Veolia and Suez Environment

have been very interested in helping Karnataka ad-dress its water and waste management issues, said an official delegate. Alstom, which has been playing an important role in setting up rail and electrical infrastructure, is said to be keen on play-ing a more active role in the state’s power sector.

Polluted Mumbai air showers ‘green rain’MUMBAI: Last month, India’s commercial capital witnessed ‘green rain’ in Dombivli area, sending warning signals on the high pollution levels in the metropolis.Accord-ing to environmentalists, pollutants in the air may have reacted with rainwater. The deposition of green water in and around MIDC area of Dombivli seems to be a case of pollution manifesting itself, they said. This incident raises a question mark on the effectiveness of the pollution control poli-cies and actions of the state government’s various agencies, which should conduct accurate and transparent speedy chemi-cal tests of the green water and decide the causative factors.

Bengaluru first city with free wifi hotspotsBENGALURU: The hub of information technology (IT) can now boast of being the first Indian city to have free wifi hotspots.The project, launched at the iconic MG Road here recently, allows a person to browse up to three hours a day and download up to 50 MB (megabyte) of data.Wifi will now be available at five different locations including the MG Road. The project is in its pilot phase, while a Bengarulu-based service provider D-VoiS is involved in the implementation. The state government assures that they keep a tab on the activities any person logs into. The service provider has set up high definitions cameras in the locations.

Hubli students talk ‘green solutions’HUBLI: Eco-friendly projects help put the spotlight on environmental issues. With this in mind, students from various engineering colleges from across the country displayed innovative projects offering ‘green’ solutions at Yuva Summit-2014 organised at the local BVB College of Engineering and Technology recently. About 65 projects on waste and plastic management, air and water pollution control, agricultural solutions and slum-cleaning were displayed at the summit, organised under the guidance of LEAD of Deshpande Foundation.

Bihar civic bodies to pass building maps, again

PATNA: Following an amendment to the Bihar Municipalities Act, 2007, municipal bodies in the state have been empowered once again to pass the building maps in

the municipal areas. The state legislature passed the amendment bill during its winter session. Earlier, the Patna Regional Development Authority was empowered to pass the housing maps. As per the amended law, if any construction is done without approval of the authorised architect, the house owner would be slapped a fine of Rs 50,000 and imprisonment up to one year. As per the amended law, municipal bodies will have to put up street lights on everyroad and street.

‘Clear rules’ for Goa civic bodies on licencesPANAJI: Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has instructed the Director of Municipal Administration and Panchayat to issue guidelines to municipal bodies with regard to documents required before issuing a license and occupancy certificate.Parrikar said he had also issued an instruction that all ready mix concrete plants be brought under quality inspections. The state government move comes in the wake of the recent Canacona house collapse incident, which has claimed 16 lives, to date.

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The Environment ministry has deceided to assess the level of pollution in the Ganges

Swanky bus stops for Patna soon

PATNA: The Bihar capital will soon get rid of rusty iron-made bus stops and get bus shelters

at par with international standards with posh, swanky ones. According to the city operational plan mandated by Ministry of Urban Development for running city service buses under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM), the Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation (BUIDCo) will develop 208 bus shelters made of stainless steel and glossy exterior, polycarbonate sheets and pre-fabricated material. The project would be executed over the next eight months at an estimated outlay of Rs 13.72 crore.

Surat’s development norms in for changeSURAT: Keeping in mind the population boom in the Diamond City of Gujarat, the urban planners are thinking to amend the Development Control Regulation (DCR) to address the issues of housing and infrastructure. Surat Urban Development Authority (SUDA) and Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) officials are focusing on modalities to maximise the use of land and manage the increased flow of traffic.

VMC housing plan gets centre’s approvalVADODARA: In a step to make the third largest populated city slum-free, construction of over 1,800 houses for slum dwellers in Ektanagar has been cleared by the Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee (CSMC) of the Union Ministry for Housing and Urban Poverty alleviation.The detailed project report (DPR) placed by the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) proposed construction of houses under the Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY). The project, estimated at Rs 88.91 crore, will give families living in 11 slum clusters 1,856 flats.

BMC may charge housing societies for billboardsMUMBAI: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has proposed to acquire a share of the profits-likely to be in the range of 1-2 percent-they earn from leasing out the space for hoardings on their premises. As per the new policy, hoardings atop terraces and roofs of buildings are now banned on account of buildings’ structural stability.

Nod to more funds to save Yamuna

NEW DELHI: The Union Ministry of Urban Development recently approved releasing more funds for guarding the Yamuna river against pollution. The approval was given at the meeting of the Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee (CSMC) on JnNURM. The project of laying interceptor sewers, would cost Rs 1,35,771.00 lakh and is likely to be completed by March, 2014.

More water for Faridabad residents from June

FARIDABAD: Come June and the residents of Faridabad will get respite from water scarcity, as the Municipal Corporation is augmenting water storage capacity. The Rs 493-crore

project promises to raise the capacity to 398 MLD. Speaking to Urban Update, the Mayor of the Faridabad Municipal Corporation, Mr Ashok Arora, said the city had always faced water shortage, especially during the summer. Despite delayed execution of the project, it would go a long way towards ending the water woes, he added.

Indore plans FOB, flyovers along BRTS corridor

INDORE: To manage and streamline the traffic congestions due to the BRTS corridor in the city,

the Urban Development Department has suggested having foot-over bridges (FOB) and flyovers along the corridors. The Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) was introduced in the city with an objective to provide modern mass transport system. Although urban planners insist that adding and widening of roads is not the panacea to all transport-related ailments, there is a necessity to develop roads in sync with mass transit system.

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Gujarat has taken steps to fast track Rs 12,000 crore metro rail project

Nitin Gadkari with Urban Update

Former BJP President and senior party leader Nitin Gadkari has emphasised the need for adoption of public private participation

(PPP) model in infrastructure projects, so as to improve the quality of service delivery by municipal corporations. Mr Gadkari was speaking after inaugurating the 45th Annual General Meeting of the All India Council of Mayors (AICM) in Nagpur on Jan 11. He also spelt out three measures for making cities a vibrant place to live in. They are:

♦ States should implement the 74th Amendment to the Constitution, ef-fected by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi-led government with a view to strengthening local bodies, in letter and spirit.

♦ Budget of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) should be augmented to bridge the infrastructure and services gap in the cities and meet the require-ments of rapid urbanisation.

♦ Replacing development with planned development, should be implemented across the country in line with the development model of Gujarat

Delhi to get Heritage City status?NEW DELHI: The national capital’s quest for earning the World Heritage City status has begun with the Ministry of Culture sending a full-fledged dossier to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) recently. In the dossier, the ministry has highlighted the heritage

behind each site and explained that all the proposed sites were being maintained as per the international standards for the capital to get the coveted tag. The proposal “Delhi: A Heritage City” was submitted by the union government to the UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre in 2012. It is now part of the tentative list, say official sources.

Anil Sole elected new Chairman of AICM

NAGPUR: Mr Anil Sole, Mayor of the Nagpur Municipal Corporation was elected Chairman of the All India Council of Mayors at its Annual General Meeting in Nagpur on Jan

10, 2014. Talking to media persons after his election, Mr Sole said that representation of the Council at the national level has been negligible and that he would work towards this end. The Council would launch a website on the best practices by corporations across India.

AIILSG to train Sanitary staff of SDMC

NEW DELHI: In an initiative to provide holistic training to the civic body workers, the All In-dia Institute Local Self Govern-ment (AIILSG) will hold capac-ity-building training sessions

for 10,000 Sanitary workers of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC). The training programme, which will be conducted in the four zones of the SDMC, and in batches of 50 each, is expected to be completed in 10 months’ time, according to official sources. The programme will help the workers garner knowledge on topics like solid waste management, sanitation management, disaster management and fire management. Both theoretical and practical training will be imparted by experts in the respective fields. The programme also has field visits as part of the curriculum.

NMMC seeks 12 vendors for its panel NAVI MUMBAI: For the third time, the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) has invited expressions of interest to obtain representations from street vendors, resident welfare associations and civil society organisations, as mandated by the Supreme Court. The 30-member committee has provision for representation of women across the three categories to provide a gender focus on the town vending committee. The committee will decide on the hawking zones.

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India gets its first Monorail in Mumbai

22 banks offer loan to Nashik civic body

MUMBAI: With the launch of monorail service in Mumbai, the ‘maximum city’ became the first city in India to boast of this mode of public transport. The first phase of Mumbai Monorail covers a stretch of 8.9 km between Wadala and Chembur in the central-eastern suburbs of the metropolis.

The service, inaugurated by Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, became operational on Feb 1 after a delay of over two years, and its commercial operations started from the day next. The second phase of the Rs 3,000-crore project will see extension of monorail service up to Sant Gadge Maharaj Chowk in South Mumbai.

Initially, six trains have been pressed into service. Each train with four coaches can carry up to 570 passengers, and current fares range between Rs 5 and Rs 11.

It has reduced the travel time between Wadala and Chembur from 40 minutes to nearly 21 minutes.

The project has been executed by a consortium of engineering major L&T and Malaysian firm Scomi Engineering, and owned and operated by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).

NASHIK: As many as 22 nationalised and private banks have approached the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) offering loan to fund various civic projects. Of the 22 banks, four have submitted proposals quoting their interest rates to be charged on the loan amount of Rs 110 crore.The NMC has already received approval from the state government for taking loan amounting to Rs 200 crore from nationalised and private banks to fund various civic works. The Housing and Urban Development Corporation Ltd

(HUDCO) is ready to provide loan worth Rs 90 crore to the municipal corporation, while the rest of the funds amounting to Rs 110 crore are to be raised through loans from banks. An NMC official said, “Altogether 22 banks approached us after we invited proposals from them. Four nationalised banks have already submitted their proposals and they are ready to give loan. They have quoted interest rates in the range of 9.75-10 percent.”

The Corporation plans to finalise the bank in a month.

BMC budget may touch Rs 30,000cr markMUMBAI: During the coming financial year 2014-2015, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)’s budget may hit Rs 30,000-crore mark, sources say. The budget will utilise the under-spent part of the Rs 27,578.67-crore budget for the current fiscal.

In 2013, a new unified schedule of rates for works was introduced in the BMC. This has apparently raised the estimated costs of works by over 10 per cent, according to the source.

Besides, in many departments, the budget has remained underutilised, so funds from these would be carried forward. Focal areas would include reconstruction and repair,

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♦ Phase-1 service connects Wadala with Chembur

♦ Each 4-coach train ferries up to 570 passengers

♦ Point-to-point travel time halved to 21 minutes

BMC budget may touch Rs 30,000cr mark

India moves to boost municipal bond mkt

Chandigarh civic body to sue violators

♦ Municipal bonds to fund rapid urbanisation

♦ Vizag civic body issued last bonds in 2010

♦ Rs 31bn bonds issued since first bonds in 1995

♦ Legal action in line with Defacement Act

♦ Defacement Act redone to make it stricter

♦ 125 default in timely payment of penalty

water supply, open spaces and education, he added.

In the wake of a spate of building collapses in 2013, sources said, a large portion of the budget would be directed towards reconstruction and repair of civic buildings for the next two-three years. The BMC will also direct a major portion of its resources for enhancing water supply, including allocations for the Gargai-Pinjal dam project and the Water Distribution Improvement Programme (WDIP).

The forthcoming budget, in a new trend, is also expected to have more funds for ward-wise improvement of public amenities.

NEW DELHI: In a welcome move, the Government of India is making efforts to revive its municipal bond market to meet the mounting funding requirements following rapid urbanisation.

The market has been effectively dead. Greater Vishakhapatnam Municipal Corporation issued the last municipal bonds in India in 2010 for Rs300 million. Total issuance has been mere Rs 31 billion (USD 503 million) since municipal bonds were first issued in 1995.

With an urban population set to grow 38 percent by 2026, this market in India is ill-equipped to meet the future funding needs of the country’s towns and cities.

However, efforts are now underway to change this. Last month, India’s capital markets regulator formed a

20-odd member committee to look into the development of the market for municipal bonds and suggest measures to revive it.

According to sources, the central government is also closely following a World Bank report on the regulatory framework for municipal borrowing in India. This indicates the determination of the government to promote the market.

A vibrant market for municipal bonds can go a long way to help provide long-term funding for India’s urban infrastructure requirements - as in the US, where the related market had over USD 3.7 trillion outstanding in early 2012.

Many challenges, however, remain. “Most municipal corporations in India have a limited understanding of bond markets. First, these bodies need to be educated on the significance of the municipal bonds and, without this, nothing will work,” said Atul Joshi, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of India Ratings & Research, the local arm of Fitch Ratings.

CHANDIGARH: The city municipal corporation is all set to sue 125 defaulters of the Defacement Act who have failed to pay penalty in the stipulated time-frame of seven days.The civic body has prepared a list of the defaulters, which includes their names and pictures of defacement, among others, to initiate civil as well as criminal proceedings against them in the district courts.

After reframing the Defacement Act, 130 violators had been issued notices. But only five of them paid the penalty in the stipulated time frame.

Under the new exercise, the violator will have to pay the fine and if he fails, a case of suit of recovery under the civil procedure code would be

initiated by sending such cases to the court to attach and sell his property. The offenders can even be sentenced to jail for at least six months.

The civic body had recently reframed the Defacement Act, under which, the fine has been enhanced to Rs 100 per square feet per day. Besides defacement charges, it will include labour or work charges for removing the advertisement, among others.

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NEW DELHI: President Pranab Mukherjee has expressed concern over the sprouting urban slums and those living therein, strug-gling to keep pace due to ‘systemic inad-equacies’ on the part of the policymakers.

Mr Mukherjee was speaking while pre-senting awards to various states and cities for their performance during 2012-13 under different categories of schemes of the Hous-ing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA) Ministry at the Vigyan Bhawan here on January 21.

The President mentioned that there were 93 million slum-dwellers in the country, with an urban housing capacity of nearly 18 mil-lion and that the challenges confronting the cities were daunting, yet surmountable.

He said the income and consumption parameters were insufficient to capture the deprivation, and suggested a vulnerability-based approach to combat poverty by focus-sing on three key areas – residential, occupa-tional and social. Mr Mukherjee also lauded the initiatives undertaken by the ministry through schemes like the JnNURM, Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY), National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM) and the Rajiv Awas Yojana.

[email protected]

Vizag, Ahmedabad, Durg treat poor best

President Pranab Mukherjee presents award for Effective Implementation of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM), instituted by the Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation, in New Delhi

Awarded cities ♦ Parking businesses can be gener-

ated by allowing public parking within private parking lots, as in Japanese neighbourhoods, to bet-ter manage and operate available public parking spaces

♦ Vishakhapatnam, Ahmedabad and Durg: Best cities in Basic Ser-vices to the Urban Poor (BSUP) and Interest Subsidy Scheme for Housing the Urban Poor (IHSDP category) amongst Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in Large States and Union Territories (UTs)

♦ Sonamura (Tripura) and Jiribam (Manipur): Best cities in imple-mentation of IHSDP for ULBs in Small and Special Category States and UTs.

♦ Thiruvanantapuram and Thane:

Shared awards for Best Commu-nity Mobilisation Efforts under BSUP and IHSDP

♦ Thiruvanthapuram: Best City for Use of Cost Effective Building Technology in Construction of Houses under JnNURM

♦ Chandigarh: Best City for Planned Habitat for Urban Poor

♦ Ajmer: Best City for Outstanding Efforts for Preparation of Slum-Free City Plan of Action and Pilot Projects under the Rajiv Awas Yojana

♦ Vishakhapatnam: Best City in Effective Enforcement of Three Pro-poor Reforms

Awarded statesNorth East and Special Category States and Union Territories

♦ Mizoram: Best Performing State under JnNURM

Large States and UTs ♦ Karnataka: Best Performing State

under JnNURM ♦ Tamil Nadu: Best State in Effec-

tive Enforcement of Three Pro-poor Reforms under JnNURM

♦ Andhra Pradesh: Best State for Promoting Community Organisa-tions

♦ Bihar: Best State for Skill Training of Urban Poor

Small states and Union Territories

♦ Odisha: Best State for Providing Self-employment to Urban Poor

♦ Mizoram: Best State for Overall Peformance

President Pranab Mukherjee gives away the prestigious awards to various states and cities for their performance

By Urban Update Team

HUPA Awards

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STANDSTILL

ON THE MOVE?

Urban Transport

14 February 2014 | www.urbanupdate.in14 February 2014 | www.urbanupdate.in

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Long tailbacks in most cities, two-wheelers jumping onto footpath, buses crawling to find their way and overcrowded suburban trains raise a big concern: something is amiss about our urban transport system

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ith Indian cities fast turning into centres of innovation and

economic growth, urbanisation is happening at an unprecedented pace and scale: by 2030, the urban population is estimated to shoot up to about 600 million from 377 million in 2011. This trend is stressing an already-pressured infrastructure in cities, including urban transportation.

A Ministry of Urban Development study in 2010, based on a sample of 87 cities, estimated that in the next 20 years, the expected travel speed

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wheelers. At present, India has about 120 million vehicles, a number that is growing steadily. In the absence of adequate public transport system, people prefer to commute in their own vehicles. This is leading to broader sustainability challenges for both people and environment in terms of lost man-hours due to long travelling times, pressure on scarce fuel reserve, increasing emission of green house gases (GHGs) and fatalities in road accidents.

Every year, an estimated 135,000 people die in traffic crashes on the roads of India. Besides, in 2010 alone, outdoor air pollution contributed to more than 620,000 unnatural deaths. Plus, use of energy by various modes of urban transport and emission of GHGs are estimated to increase almost seven-fold by 2030.

Hunt for remedySo, where does the solution to make urban transport viable and sustainable lie? Do we need to have more roads added to the present network and widen the existing ones? Well, although it may look an easy answer to the malady, most experts tend to disagree. They feel that widening and addition of more roads will only pave way for rolling out more private vehicles. While it may ease out the situation temporarily for those capable of affording cars and other vehicles, the urban poor will still continue to suffer.

There is, however, a broad consensus over improving public transport infrastructure in cities. An efficient mass transport system would go a long way in minimising the sufferings of the commuters, experts believe. They argue that more and more people would feel encouraged to take such a mode of transport so as to make their travel cheaper, less time-consuming and therefore hassle-free. This will also boost the efforts to keep environment clean and green by reducing vehicular pollution.

A comparative study suggests that in 2008, public transport accounted for only 22 percent of the urban

Bare facts

♦ Share of public transport fleet in the country decreased sharply from 11 percent in 1951 to 1.1 percent in 2001

♦ In 2008, public transport accounted for only 22 percent of urban transport in India, while it is about 49 percent in the Philippines, Venezuela and Egypt, and close to 40 percent in South Africa, South Korea and Brazil

♦ Only 20 out of India’s 85 cities with a population of 0.5 million or more had a city bus service in 2009

♦ Share of two-wheelers in the total fleet of urban transport is about 72 percent

♦ Cars/four-wheelers account for nearly 10 percent of urban transport

♦ Average road length per 1,000 population in Indian cities is 0.91 km, while it is 9.2 km in Singapore, 9.7 km in Curitiba, 10 km in Johannesburg and 21.8 km in Seoul

February 2014 | www.urbanupdate.in

of major corridors of Indian cities would fall from 26-17 kmph to a low of 8-6 kmph. This amply reflects on the scale of congestion that the country’s urban areas are going to face if the current business-as-usual state of affairs continues.

As the number of neo-urbanites is increasing so is the number of private vehicles, especially the four-

Nirmal Anshu Ranjan

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transport in India, while it was close to 49 percent in lower-middle-income countries like the Philippines, Venezuela and Egypt, and about 40 percent in upper-middle-income countries such as South Africa, South Korea and Brazil.

The data aggregated from various sources show that the share of public transport fleet in the country dropped sharply from 11 percent in 1951 to 1.1 per cent by the turn of the century, and that only 20 out of India’s 85 cities with a population of 0.5 million or more had a city bus service by 2009.

So, it is no wonder that in the absence of adequate public transport infrastructure, the share of two-wheelers in the total fleet of transport in the country stands at about 72 percent and that of cars close to 10 percent.

Blocked roads as roadblocksAlthough urban planners insist

“Metro rail, Monorail and Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) are three projects that can shape India’s urban transportation”

P R K MurthyChief, Transport & Communica-tions DivisionMumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority

Delhi Metro: Faster, safer, efficient

Model Transport

he Delhi Metro is one of the largest rail-based mass rapid transit systems, which started its

operations in 2002. The system is equipped with a state-of-the-art communication and train control system. It has modern air-conditioned coaches and ticketing through the Automatic Fare Collection System — introduced for the first time in India. With peak-hour headway as little as three minutes, travelling on the Delhi Metro is often the most enjoyable and efficient way to get across the city.

The project has also introduced the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which replaces conventional transport modes with ones that are more efficient, faster, safer and more reliable. The project also helped develop a new methodology- ACM016, which can be used by other cities developing

metro systems in India to generate income from carbon credits in foreign exchange with Non Annex-I countries to the Kyoto protocol.

Only recently the Delhi Metro became the first-ever metro and railway system in the world to be registered with the prestigious Gold Standard Foundation, which is a globally accepted certification standard for carbon mitigation projects.

It boasts of a daily weekday ridership of 2.2 million and seeks to eventually serve all areas of the city with efficient, clean and modern metro rail network.

The prestigious MRTS project has been divided into three phases – Phase I consisted of 65 km of track and 59 stations, Phase II added an additional 124.63 km and 83 stations, and once completed, Phase III will add another 41 km track and 28 new underground stations.

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Urban transport woes

♦ Growing transport demand with rapid urbanisation ♦ Inadequate public transport amid fast motorisation ♦ Limited road space available for public transport ♦ Increasing levels of congestion on city roads ♦ Massive loss of man-hours due to long travel times ♦ Rising transport energy demand depleting fuel reserve ♦ High rate of carbon emissions pushing air pollution

of Urban Development indicated that in view of the quantity and quality of the available public transport and absence of an Intelligent Transport System (ITS), levying of congestion tax could be pre-mature at this stage.

Therefore, it looks that an incentivised, inclusive urban transport policy would work better in India than a coercive Chine-like action.

Policy fallacyTo some extent, the poor showing of public transport in India can be attributed to the tax policy regime, as it apparently militates against public transport. The total tax burden for public transport vehicles per vehicle km is 2.6 times higher than for private vehicles.

Further, urban transport in India has not been categorised as a subject under any of the three levels of government — central, state or local — to date. In most cities, there are multiple organisations like development authorities, road transport authorities, state transport corporations, public works departments and police services engaged in different aspects of transport regulation, with little coordination among them. That is why there remains an overall lack of awareness about urban transport issues and their handling.

Realising the problem in its real magnitude, Bangalore has taken the lead in setting up an Urban Metropolitan Transport Authority, in keeping with the National Urban Transport Policy 2006 guidelines, to address the challenges of integrated transport planning. Other million-plus metropolises may also emulate the example to bring about coordination among the various government agencies and other organisations active in the domain, right from the planning stage till the execution.

This near-crisis situation also surfaced due to a long period of neglect of urban planning and infrastructure by state governments, coupled with a lack of leadership from the Government of India and apathy on the part of other institutions

“There is no clear policy on the public private partnership (PPP) model for funding transport projects in the country”

U P S MadanCommissioner, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority

that adding and widening of roads is not the panacea to all transport-related ailments, they do agree on the necessity to develop roads in sync with the rising population of the cities. This is also necessary as the unprecedented urbanisation calls for some never-before measures, like Bus Rapid Transit System or BRTS in big cities, to ferry the fast adding up urban population. And, all this just cannot happen without increasing road density substantially.

In 2008, road density in terms of average road length per 1,000 population in the cities of India stood at 0.91 km – much below the 4.86 km average in its own rural areas, taking the national average to 2.88 km. Incidentally, the road density figure for Singapore is 9.2 km, 9.7 km in Curitiba, 21.8 km for Seoul and in Johannesburg it is 9.2 km. That says it all about the kind of road network India needs.

Apart from developing roads, the government also needs to put in place policies that could encourage the masses to go for public/shared transport, instead of using individual cars for daily commuting. Promoting car-pooling can be one such option.

Recently, the booming north Chinese port city of Tianjin became the fourth metropolis in the country to cap the number of new cars it would allow every year to hit the roads. This will help China curb pollution and congestion in those cities. However, at a time when the world has largely embraced the open market policy, how far such a policy would offer a

workable solution in the context of a democratic India remains an issue of debate.

Incidentally, one such ‘coercive’ suggestion was mooted by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Urban Development (Urban Transport) in 2010, when it recommended a congestion tax’ on personal vehicles in the form of a toll tax in congested areas. But the Ministry

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concerned, like urban local bodies. Inadequate investment in urban infrastructure, poor maintenance of public infrastructure and poor systems of service delivery, among others, have all contributed to bringing urban transport to its present state.

So, the moot question remains, can we put in place the required urban transport infrastructure, which is viable in short term, sustainable in long term and financially feasible in both?

The road aheadThe National Urban Transport Policy calls for increasing the share of public transport in our cities from 22 percent to 60 percent by the end of the 12th Five Year Plan period (2012-2017). It also recommends that the share of public transport in all motorised trips be taken to the level of at least 50 percent for ensuring “an efficient, reliable and safe transport system...for fostering rapid economic growth.”

A major hurdle in improvement and maintenance of the transport infrastructure has been lack of

“There is a requirement of mixed use development of urban transport centres...This will help provide ease of access to major facilities and promote use of mass transit systems”

Kamal NathUnion Minister for Urban Development

JnNURM funds for city bus services

ost of the Indian cities have low presence of pub-lic transport. Oth-er than some big

cities, the average share of public transport is about 10 percent only. In view of the poor quality and rather scarce public transport, people prefer to use personalised modes of transport. This trend makes a perfect recipe for acute traffic congestion in cities in the near future.

Recognising the necessity of car-rying a greater share of the travel market on public transport, the Union Ministry of Urban Develop-ment (MoUD) in 2006 announced a National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP) with a focus on the need to ‘move people – not vehicles’ and ensure safe, affordable, quick, com-fortable, reliable and sustainable access for the growing number of residents.

Using the vehicle of Jawaharlal

Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM), formed in 2005 to fast-track urban infrastruc-ture development, the government announced funding for purchase of buses. It also made fulfilling of conditions — like setting up of city-level Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA) for all one million-plus cities — a must in order to be eligible for getting the funds.

In response to the announce-ment, as many as 61 out of the 65 mission cities came forward with their requirement for financial as-sistance for buses for their urban transport systems. By 2009-end itself, the MoUD had released Rs 1,041 crore as the first installment for procurement of 15,260 buses, and it remains an ongoing process.

This highly successful scheme stresses PPP model for operating city bus services, so as to increase accountability and prevent rev-enue losses.

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Transforming Transport

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Causes of concern

♦ Population increase due to rural migration ♦ Uncoordinated management of urban land use and transport ♦ Poor quality and insufficient capacity of roads ♦ Insufficient road room available to public transport ♦ Rise in vehicle numbers due to increased income levels ♦ Poor public transport infrastructure making way for private

vehicles ♦ Overall lack of policy to grapple with the situation

adequate investment in the sector, which in any case is an offshoot of inappropriate planning over the decades. If attempts are made to attract greater private investment, it will not just help meet investment deficit in the infrastructure sector but also improve efficiencies and throw competition to public sector players, thus leading to enhanced quality of service.

At the current stage of development, it is only expected that there will be an increase in migration to cities in search of high-productivity jobs, and that cities will continue to act also as engines of rural development. So, it will be in the fitness of things to keep the issue of public transport, alongside housing and civic amenities, in focus while doing any planning for India’s urban space.

More experiments like BRTS, which envisions putting public transport in the fast lane, are called for. But details need to be further worked out before introducing any such system: it is absence of supporting infrastructure – like sufficient pedestrians’ space, and adequate room for bicycles and other two-wheelers – that threatens to derail BRTS projects in most of the cities where the system has been introduced. An inclusive development of transport infrastructure becomes a must in such instances.

However, the metro rail projects executed in some cities, including Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata, have

Development Ministry has decided to consider metro rail also for Tier II cities like Lucknow, Kanpur, Patna, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Pune, Surat, Indore, Nagpur, Kochi, Coimbatore, Kozhikode. It is a welcome move.

An efficient, affordable, safe and reliable urban transport system can be created only by incorporating it as a crucial parameter in urban planning, bringing about more equitable allocation of road space with people rather than vehicles as the main focus, and encouraging greater use of public transport and non-motorised modes of transport.

[email protected]

met with huge success. Experiments with the metro rail system show that without consuming much of the land space, it is capable of ferrying large numbers of people at affordable rates and at a fast pace. That being the reason, the Union Urban

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“Providing good quality, reliable and comfortable public transport has been a challenge. Promoting a culture of using public transport and discouraging private vehicles on roads should be the main focus of policy makers and stakeholders”

B C Khatua, IAS (Retd)Director, Mumbai Transformation Support Unit

‘Sticks and carrots’ will keep cities moving

Dr. Jatin ModiPresident, AIILSG

opulation in city grows, and so do the urban transport woes. While not much can

be done about the cities as cen-tres of economic activity drawing people from all over, the transport infrastructure can certainly be re-vamped and augmented to bear the load of rapid urbanisation.

Next to keeping the infrastruc-ture up to date comes the challenge of regularising and reining in the unhindered movement of small vehicles in the city space. Those vehicles should be kept away from prone-to-crowding areas by slap-ping heavy fines for entry there, as is the case in London. Absence of such deterrents and low parking charges have left cars and motor-bikes sneaking into even crowded places and turning the situation worse.

But before checking the entry of cars into central locations, a strong network of feeder services to and from main transit points is a must. Use of smaller buses for the purpose can further help improve the situation. After all, it is feeder services in the European cities that have kept those free from the congestion. Unscientific erection

of flyovers and bridges also cre-ate traffic bottlenecks, as those offer only limited solution and for a short span of time. Experiments globally suggest that underground diversion of traffic has an edge over the option of flyovers. But, due to high costs involved, traffic tun-nels have mostly remained buried in the plan books. Maybe, the PPP model of funding comes in handy in this context.

Besides, encouraging and in-centivising people to use public transport can be another way to curtail gridlocks. For instance, womenfolk can be encouraged to dump private cars in favour of public transport by offering them cheaper tickets. Similarly, intro-duction of air-conditioned buses on high-traffic routes can also drive people towards public trans-port. Government establishments and other employers can as well be impressed upon to incentivise and sensitise their employees for using public transport instead of their own vehicles.

The ever increasing pace of urbanisation calls for some dras-tic and early measures to prevent cities from coming to a grinding halt.

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mistakesDelhi BRTSmadeS

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With the then Sheila Dixit-led Delhi Government deciding to scrap the capital’s much-hyped Bus Rapid Transit System last year, it is nearly end of the road for the exorbitant transport experiment called the BRTS. Let’s spot the whys

Wrong choice of locationThe purpose of the BRTS was to propel middle class commuters to shift from cars to buses, so they chose wealthy South Delhi to start from, as it has a highest percentage of car owners in the city, and some of the widest and therefore least congested roads. But, the system was an irritant to the local powerful lobby from the very outset. It also failed to convince the lower class/lower-middle class bus riders its usefulness immediately.

Insufficient infrastructureExtra space for two-wheelers was not created along the sideways to accommodate those displaced by the BRT corridor. Jams were particularly bad where the bus lanes began, since the cars and other vehicles were pushed to the narrowed down sides of the road. This created bottlenecks on the roads along the corridors.


February 2014 | www.urbanupdate.in 23C

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S 5Missingparking lotsThe BRTS was actually not less time consuming than taking car or bike, since one had to first reach the BRTS line through various modes of transport, as these lines lacked the commuter parking lots present at the Metro stations. In fact, people coming to the various BRTS terminals in private vehicles was not visualised beforehand. This discouraged people from taking buses.

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Low frequency of busesThe last thing a commuter wants is long waits for buses. A large number of people travelling in their cars are those, who don’t have the time and patience to keep waiting for buses. When the BRT opened, car owners would sit parked in the car lane, waiting for even 15-20 minutes to see a bus passing by through an empty corridor. This was hardly encouraging for them to switch to bus ride.

Metro rail, BRTS not linkedThe BRTS and the Metro Rail developed independent from one another. If the first leg of the BRTS had taken riders directly to a Metro station, both systems would have had leveraged extra riders. This would have also boosted the BRTS prospects, in particular, with the middle class forming the main travelling class of the Metro Rail.

No stick-and-carrot policyDespite regular traffic jams during the peak hours, there is no deterrent for continuing to drive own vehicles, so as to promote use of public transport. Parking fees in even high-traffic areas remains low, and so is the licence fee for cars. Plus, unlike in London or Singapore, there is also no charge for bringing car into the heart of the cities.

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4 dimensionsShaping Future Mobility

Visionary Strategy and Ecosystem ♦ Establishing a transparent, viable and stable regulatory frame-

work for public transport, integrating national and regional mobility powers, and ensuring a clear allocation of roles and responsibilities

♦ Professionalising Public Transport Operators (PTOs) and for-malising public transport

♦ Developing a political vision and urban mobility objectives based on strategic alignment between all key stakeholders

♦ Developing a visionary urban mobility strategy and master plan ensuring the right balance between stretch and achievability

♦ Ensuring coordination of transport planning with other urban policies

♦ Developing an integrated approach for transport planning and other urban policies to shift from isolated decision-making to integrated urban management

♦ Initiating fair competition between transport modes and busi-ness models

Mobility Demand Management ♦ Engaging with citizens and business community to

encourage pragmatic, well-informed and sustainable travel and location choices

♦ Introducing traffic-calming measures to optimise street-usage conditions and improve quality of life for residents and businesses

♦ Introducing pricing measures to steer mobility demand through financial incentives and better syn-chronising supply and demand

♦ Introducing and enforcing parking policy as a critical instrument to steer mobility choices, while gradu-ally increasing sophistication of fee and regulation structure

♦ Defining appropriate land use policies to influence long-term mobility patterns and encourage transit-oriented development

♦ Encouraging businesses to develop an active corpo-rate mobility strategy to improve mobility of individu-als and goods while minimising costs

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4 dimensionsShaping Future Mobility

Mobility Supply: Mindset & Solutions ♦ Making investment for a sustainable mobility offering and

keeping away from mistakes of developed countries ♦ Developing competitive position of public transport by

evolving from ‘transport provider’ to ‘solution provider’ via introduction of innovative business models and partner-ships so as to foster sustainable transport

♦ Shifting public transport operator culture from ‘fleet man-ager’ mindset to customer-centric culture and progressively enhancing quality of public transport offering while improv-ing customer experience

♦ Further increasing customer experience via commercial offering extension through partnerships and alliances with third parties

♦ Encouraging interoperability and developing multi-modal packages

♦ Integrating the travel value chain via development of inte-grated mobility platforms

Revisiting Public Transport Finances ♦ Driving demand for public transport to maximise fare

revenue by focussing on gradual improvement in ser-vice offering quality and ensuring transparency of fare adjustments

♦ Further individualising mobility offering by providing bundles of services targeting different customer groups at different prices

♦ Assessing opportunities to exploit public transport as-sets to derive additional revenues through aggregation of third-party services

♦ Prioritising public funding for capital investments into projects with sound business cases demonstrating poli-cy benefits and long-term viability

February 2014 | www.urbanupdate.in

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umbai is suffering from rapidly rising traffic congestion, now spread to more parts of the city, for

longer hours, and in a more acute and unpredictable manner.

The phenomenon of choked roads became most visible in the last decade

when the population growth was at its lowest – 0.5 percent, annually. So, the population growth cannot be the cul-prit, or at least the sole culprit.

The number of private vehicles – cars and motorbikes – is growing at a whopping 9 percent per annum and is believed to be the single largest factor contributing to the virtually unman-

Cries for CureMuMbai

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The number of private vehicles – both cars and motorbikes – is growing at a whopping 9 percent per annum and contributing most to the traffic congestion in the city

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Roads of the city once synonymous with fast pace of life are today sights of congestion and traffic jams, calling out for better traffic management

ageable traffic congestion. During the same period, Thane, Kalyan, Vasai and Virar also grew at a fast clip – re-cording over 25 percent growth. This meant longer trips by all modes of transport, thus further contributing to the traffic problem.

Besides, over the years, the inci-dence of parking on roads has gone up over three times, occupying about 20 percent of the road space – a factor that cannot be lost sight of.

On the other hand, while rail trips have gone up by a meagre 2 percent to 75 lakh a day in the last 10 years, daily bus trips have slipped by the same percentage to 37 lakh. But the num-ber of trips by cars and two-wheelers has grown at a faster pace – about 6 percent annually, and those by three-wheelers/taxies/motorbikes have seen a steep rise. Although these fac-tors are largely accepted as the prima-ry reasons for the increasingly stress-

Use of taxies and autos, which require much less parking hours compared to cars, should be encouraged for localised point-to-point connectivity

Flexi work hours with staggered office reporting/return timing and encouragement to work from virtual offices can reduce traffic snarls during peak hours

Employers can join hands with urban planners and traffic police to work out details for vehicle parking, vehicle sharing and enhanced use of public transport for ensuring optimum use of the available resources

ful traffic congestion, none of the projects under consideration - such as coastal roads, various flyovers from Worli to Sewree, or FSI-based vertical public parking – seem to be designed to address the issue in the right per-spective.

Given the magnitude of rising traf-fic woes on the roads of Mumbai, here are some quick wins to ease the cha-otic situation:

Flexi office reporting timingStaggered office reporting timing – 8.30am to 10.30am (and correspond-ingly closing) – at major office/com-mercial complexes can be of some

help. All employers with more than 10 employees in those complexes should go for survey of places of residence of their employees, and their current mode of commuting should be man-dated by the state government. If the survey is conducted electronically, the digital info can help intelligent plan-ning. With virtually every office-goer using net/smart phone, this should not be a difficult task. Employees can also be encouraged to work flexi hours and from virtual offices.

Selection of location of offices/stu-dios in suburbs or close to new railway stations and bus corridors can also be

incentivised. This can be done in a variety of ways, including lowering of property tax.

Shared autos, car poolingNext to buses, taxies and autos play an important part in point-to-point con-nectivity in cities. They provide the last mile connectivity to those not us-ing their personal vehicle. Autos and taxies typically run 16 hours a day and require much less parking hours per day for every passenger trip. For about 20 to 30 trips, these vehicles need just eight hours of parking. On the other hand, a car uses the parking space for 22 hours while making only three-four

trips. This makes autos/taxis more ef-ficient users of road space, and there-fore, must be supported with required infrastructure, like clearly marked out parking lots at all important points. A rationalised fare regime will also boost their use.

There are ways to promote car pool-ing, too. Every employer can maintain an inventory of employees needing parking and their current parking practices, and provide them a range of incentives for car pooling. It is nec-essary that urban planners and traffic police engage with employers to work out details for vehicle parking, and en-

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Since local trains are already overburdened, and additional metro rail will take at least five years to deliver, buses seem the only answer to long-winding gridlocks, at least in the short run

During off-peak hours, when the roads are crowded and buses running half empty, introduction of reduced fares can induce people to take bus rides

Pune celebrated its maiden “Bus Day” last year, and Bangalore does it on first Tuesday of every month

hanced use of buses and vehicle shar-ing for ensuring optimum use of the available resources. Software-based car pooling can be supported with discounted fuel and parking spaces for those who provide pooling. Inno-vations are possible using social net-works as well.

Celebrating public transportPune celebrated its maiden “Bus Day” last year, Bangalore does it on first Tuesday of every month and London is doing it through celebrations on completion of 60 years of double-decker buses. Such celebrations make buses popular as a means of public

transport. If persistent hammering of “Cigarette is injurious to health” can reduce smoking among the younger generation, why won’t “Use of car is injurious to the health of the city” work in a similar fashion? One can go beyond the T-shirts, stickers and other merchandise and stress the use of bus at least once a week. Many similar small-big gestures can help cumula-tively build up the bus habit (and get over the car habit).

Bus as the priority transport modeSince very little can be achieved from

the overburdened local trains, and ad-ditional metro rail takes at least five years to reach fruition, these options cannot be considered with regard to easing traffic problems in the next two-three years. So, it is the option of bus that alone can towards saving Mumbai from falling prey to the grid-lock mode.

Sadly though, buses are not left with enough space, thanks to the conges-tion on road and chaotic parking all around. More than anything, buses need space to ply and stop properly at the stops, which are often used for errant parking. Owing to all this, the prospect of buses becoming an ef-

fective mode of public transport has taken a beating for sure.

Unlike in most other cities, buses are quite visible in Mumbai and peo-ple also do not think it below their dig-nity to travel in them. Therefore, the authorities concerned need to support buses with adequate infrastructure to decongest the city’s arteries.

Off-peak AC bus faresDuring afternoons, while the roads are crowded, buses are mostly half empty. Same is the case with non-peak direc-tions. Ways should be devised to make at least some of those using cars, tax-

ies or even autos shift to buses. Simi-larly, people can also be induced to take AC buses in the afternoon.

Incidentally, there is misconcep-tion about the AC bus fares. Since it is making huge losses, it is believed that prices need to be increased. But the truth is opposite: buses need to charge distinctly lower fare for reverse of peak direction to improve occu-pancy and revenue. There is a differ-ent market segment other than office-goers that can be effectively catered to by low-priced AC buses.

Low price is a loss leader; it attracts people to test the product. Once they are satisfied with the price perfor-mance equation, a new business op-portunity for buses can be created, which can lead to reduction in the number of private cars/taxies and au-tos.

There is a gross capacity under-uti-lisation of buses during the non-peak hours. Slashed fares/information and persuasion can certainly increase the capacity use. Moderated pricing can actually increase the revenue while keeping the running cost constant.

Encouraging offices in northern suburbsThe most important reason for Mum-bai becoming investor unfriendly is the high cost of real estate, both for commercial and residential purposes. Now that the East-West links are be-ing developed (monorail, metro rail and Santacruz-Chembur Link Road), it is possible for more work places to operate from the North. Property tax should be reduced on office/work spaces in residential areas, rather than developing office complexes away from where people live. Reduced stamp duty and some non-financial incentives are sure to motivate a shift from the South to the North.

Expansion of regulated parking spaceMunicipalities are planning to in-crease parking fees significantly from Rs 10 per hour to Rs 20, 40 and Rs 60 in different parts of the city, though without making any significant in-

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With better connectivity in place for the northern suburbs of Mumbai, offices/work places should be given incentives, like slashed property tax, to operate from those areas

crease in the number of spaces under pay-n-park arrangement. According to the available data, about 300,000 vehicles stand parked on roads, as about 100 lots can cover barely 12,000 parking spaces. This has led to un-regulated parking menace rising from 60,000 vehicles to over 250,000, day and night figures put together.

Regulation, fair pricing and convert-ing at least half the parking on roads into organised pay-n-park arrange-ments with adequate supervisory and compliance mechanism is strongly recommended at this stage. Nonethe-less, moving raising parking fees is a courageous step as the city adminis-tration has been extremely negligent on revising upward the meagre fees and extending the regulated coverage. Curtailing unregulated free parking down to 100,000 vehicles and increas-ing the pay-n-park spaces to 100,000 will bring about discipline and rev-enue, and help minimise the conges-

tion problem.

Let’s do it!A steady decrease over the years in the bus trips suggests that people do not find bus an efficient mode of com-munication: it consumes time, it is infrequent and there is lack of infor-mation on direct buses on a specific route. Added to that is low car parking charges at their work places.

But, the equation can be changed altogether by offering them better and more frequent bus services using bus lanes on major commuter corridors, along with making parking signifi-cantly expensive and slapping local-

ised congestion charges in high-traf-fic areas on the lines of some western countries.

Once there is space on the main corridors, we can offer faster, more frequent and perhaps a little cheaper AC buses. If we want to use the lim-ited road space efficiently, it is time to evaluate each proposal and every idea to make people move, and not just the vehicles.

(The author is a Mumbai-based transport expert and Chairman of the Mumbai En-vironmental Social Network. He can be reached at [email protected])

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Life in a PARKING LOTFlawed parking policy is turning Mumbai and other major cities into dwelling places for vehicles rather than people

By Pawan Mulukulta

ndian cities will be home to 473 million people by 2021, compared to 285 million 20 years earlier in 2001, and by

2051, the country’s urban population is expected to top 820 million people, as per National Urban Transport Poli-cy (NUTP).

In the face of such unprecedented urbanisation, Indian cities must con-sider the mobility needs of their pre-sent and future populations, for with growing urbanisation comes rapid motorisation.

In a recent study on Global Land

Transport Infrastructure Require-ments, the International Energy Agency (IEA) projected that the area required for parking in India, if mo-torisation trends continue as they are today, will reach between 10,000 and 20,000 square kilometers by 2050. If a more sustainable approach is adopt-ed, that figure could drop to between 8,000 and 15,000 square kilometers. Even so, an area totalling any of these projections would be between seven to 35 times the current size of Mum-bai. We’re faced with a poser: are we going to create cities for vehicles or

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Horniman Circle, Mumbai: On-road multi-layer parking

City Residential Office Commercial

Space Space Space

(per 100 sqm) (per 100 sqm) (per 100 sqm)

Singapore 1.00 0.22-0.5 0.25-0.66

Hong Kong 0.16- 0.63 0.33-0.5 0.33-2.5

Delhi 2.0 2.0-2.4 2-2.4

Mumbai 0.71-4.44 2.66 for first 2.5 spaces for

1,500 sqm and first 800 sqm and

1.33 additional 1.25 additional

car space for car space for

every additional every 100 sqm

100 sqm

the people who live in them?

Managing parking for sustainable growthThe rapid motorisation of Indian cit-ies has led to crises of inaccessible streets for non-motorised modes of transport, poor urban form (bad ven-tilation, inactive and unsafe edges, residential building surrounded by parking lots etc.), lack of public trans-port priority and increased traffic con-gestion. There is an urgent need to address parking, both on-street (along the road) and off-street (stilt parking, parking lots in buildings, multi-level parking lots, surface parking lots), to minimise these negative impacts of increasing private motorisation.

The concept of managing park-ing for sustainable growth is gaining traction globally. However, in India, parking still reflects the mindset of car owners who do not recognise that the road space is not only for them, but they have to share it with other users including pedestrians, public transport users, cyclists etc. In Mum-bai, walking alone constitutes 52 per-cent of total daily trips, while public transport accounts for 78 percent of all motorised trips. Given the reality that drivers of private vehicles are in the minority among road users, there is an urgent need for reflection and re-vision of parking policies in Mumbai, as elsewhere.

The current approach to parking in Indian cities

♦ Almost no management of on-street parking

♦ Insufficient off-street supply to ca-ter to the ever-increasing demand

♦ Absence of enough multi-level car parking lots

♦ No additional Floor Space Index (FSI) incentive to developers for building parking lots

Lack of required regulatory norms has resulted in a vicious circle of more cars hitting the road, leading to an au-tomobile-oriented land use and trans-port planning.

Despite lower levels of car owner-ship and high dependency on public transport in Indian cities, off-street (plot parking) parking requirements within plots in Indian cities in gen-eral are much higher than that of cor-responding parking requirements of cities such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Delhi.

In contrast to this reality, the real estate prices in Central Business Dis-trict areas are above those in other global cities such as Shanghai, Abu Dhabi, Chicago, Singapore, Los Ange-les, Washington DC, New York mid-town and Milan, among others. This situation reveals the hidden subsidies to car users.

Existing parking requirements in global cities

Automobile

Oriented

Increasing Vehicle

Ownership Automobile

Oriented Transport

Planning

Socio-political/Socio

economic mindset

Generous

Parking Supply

Automobile Oriented

Land Use planning

Source: Modified from VTPI

Suburbanization and

Long Commutes

Quality issue with

public transport

Decreased

Dependency on

Public Transport

Alternative Modes

Marginalised(Walking/NMT)

Cycle of Automobile Oriented Planning

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Parking Reforms

Change in mindsetCurrently, on-street parking is only managed in the context of reducing traffic congestion.There is an urgent need to move away from the existing mind-set of addressing parking only when it impacts traffic to addressing parking in order to improve pedes-trian accessibility and public trans-portation. A change in parking policy also demands addressing how parking negatively affects the vibrancy of the city streets.

Shift in mindset for addressing parking

Change in institutional setupCurrently, there is little to no coordi-nation among different agencies in-volved in parking policy formation. Figure 2 depicts the existing system with a complete disconnect between the various departments.

Existing institutional setup in Mumbai

At city level, the municipal corpora-tion should look into setting up a separate Parking Cell- Comprehen-sive Parking Unit (CPU) which should have both technical and personnel capacity to manage parking at ward level in the city.

♦ The Parking Cell should be set up under the administrative body of

the city – municipal corporation. The head of parking cell would be headed by a transportation plan-ner/engineer

♦ Mumbai Development Plan has identified 151 planning sectors for local area planning. Each of them should have a parking officer, who would be responsible for overall management of the parking

♦ The parking cell would be respon-sible for overall policy and strate-gies (total supply of on-street and off-street parking), extent of fine and severity of violation

♦ Parking management should be handled by private organisations working under the parking cell. They would carry out demand and supply inventory at planning unit area level and forecast the fu-ture needs, would be responsible for operating public parking off-street facilities and on-street, and for provisions of on-street parking supply.

♦ Parking enforcement should also be handled by a private organi-sation. The enforcement agency would be responsible for issues of

fine, realisation of fine and control of parked areas based on the regu-lations prescribed by the parking cell. Since situations may cause law and order problems, taking the support of traffic police is recom-mended

♦ A good revenue sharing model needs to be created, so that the revenue collected is shared with

On-Street Parking Off-Street Parking

Pricing Policy & Collection

City Traffic Police

Emfo

rcem

ent

Address it only

when park-

ing causes

congestion

Improve pe-

destrian/NMT

accessibility

Priority to

public

transport

Need to

manage

parking

Address

traffic

congestion

Livable and

Safe urban

forms

Access

to open

spaces

Public Parking lots-

Surface/Building

Roads Department (Traf-

fic & Control)- MCGM

DCRs- MCGM and Other

Agenies in the City

Parking provisions

in buildings

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the traffic police, municipal corpo-ration and paid to the private or-ganisation for their services

♦ Initially, a portion of revenue earned should be invested back for neighbourhood improvement pro-jects such as improving pedestrian infrastructure etc.

Addressing on-street parking firstProviding enough off-street parking is not the entire solution for the parking problem. Drivers will not park in off-street lots unless on-street parking is made chargeable. Cities such as Paris, Seattle, San Francisco, Mexico City, Chicago, New York, London, Zurich, Munich etc. across the globe have re-alised that tackling on-street parking first is the key to success for manag-ing parking. Streets have to be priori-tised for their usage and managed ac-cordingly.

Pilot projects should be launched with the support of local stakehold-ers to determine a workable parking pricing model. Experts suggest, if the occupancy levels is more than 85 percent full, then price should be in-creased, but if less than 85 percent full, it should be reduced.

The key to successful implementa-tion of any such plan is participation of local stakeholders. Local residents and business owners have a vested interest in protecting the character of their neighbourhood rather than simply the movement through their streets.

Involvement of local stakeholders

Addressing parking through regulationsThere are no standard thumb-rules or formulae that enable universal and transferable parking policies. How-ever, if a city defines an ‘approach’ towards parking, then strategies can be made transferable in theory. Let us discuss three approaches that can be used to develop strategies and toolkits to best fit a particular local context:

Concept 1: ‘Walkable park-once neighbourhoods’ can be identified, especially in a transit-oriented devel-opment (TOD) zone. Here, parking is considered for a particular area or neighbourhood, and not for individual plots. Parking spots are commonly shared across the neighbourhood ir-respective of where they are located, and can be regulated by providing residential permits or congestion pric-ing for different uses.

Concept 2: ‘Urban form guidelines for quality off-street parking’ can be enforced by Development Control Regulations (DCR). The size of plot should help determine the parking maximums and hence can help relate to urban form. Small plot sizes should simply abolish parking norms, and large buildings (plot sizes) can man-date stringent parking provisions. Instead of making all allowable park-ing to be free of FSI, only a percent-age, say 25 percent, of parking above ground can be considered free of FSI, while anything above and beyond that can counted in FSI.

Concept 3: ‘Abolish the parking minimum norms’ may be pursued, and if the on-street parking is well man-aged then developers would make a judgement on how much parking they should provide.

♦ For residential areas bundling / unbundling of parking with hous-ing depends on shortage or over supply of parking. Bundling of parking is a tax on those who do not own a car to subsidise the parking for the ones who own car

♦ Different parking norms for TOD zones and non-TOD zones, enforc-ing zero minimums within TOD zones as private vehicle ridership

is low in Mumbai and public tran-sit ridership is the highest.

♦ Design a system that is impact based, assess the impact and then provide accordingly. This may re-duce the risk of over-provision;

♦ Formulae-based approach can be taken up; this formula should be publically announced to set up a transparent system

Concept 4: ‘Residential parking norms should adopt per-square-metre basis and not ‘per housing unit basis’. Most cities have a tendency of devel-oping unfeasible regulations and then running them into fiscal tools, which can be very harmful in the long run.

♦ The current parking norms should be changed to square-meter ori-ented rather than dwelling unit oriented

♦ Exempt small units or small plots from providing parking to retain plot sizes, and walkable block sizes

Concept 5: Parking norm flexibility with deficiency charges (Parking-in-lieu fee)

♦ Heritage areas could apply defi-ciency charges

♦ Involve local stakeholders such as Chamber of Commerce, Industrial associations, residential associa-tions and so on, who have some lo-cal authority to manage local park-ing, like a Parking Benefit District

♦ Encourage more and more pub-lic parking by having different sets of norms for building which provide public parking and those that provide only private parking. Concept 6: Lower parking norms for small sites/ developments and exempt smallest altogether

♦ Exempting small plots, for exam-ple plots smaller than 500-sqm size, from parking, and encourag-ing large plot buildings to accom-modate for more parking

♦ Parking businesses can be gener-ated by allowing public parking within private parking lots, as in Japanese neighbourhoods, to bet-ter manage and operate available public parking spaces.

Local

Stakeholders

Strategies,

Policies &

Implementation

Municipal

Corporation

Traffic Police

Department

[email protected]

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Transport funding

Tapping new tapsChanging face of public transport calls for ways other than the traditional ones to raise funds for the sector

he Government of In-dia and various state governments are invest-ing trillions of money in various road and rail

projects, and often there is also talk of water transportation by linking the rivers.

However, these investments are just a part of the exercise to provide basic infrastructure for these modes of transport, as the major portion of investments made to acquire vehicles to ply using this infrastructure comes from the private sector, of course bar-ring the trains.

For proper growth of public trans-port, funding needs to be more struc-tured than it is in the present scheme of things. Structuring can also create multiple models of funding.

While private financing is available in plenty for making investments in the transport sector, a good leasing model can also be one of the preferred options by entering into long-term contracts. Lease facility can be made available for such a transport service up to 100 percent of the assets cost.

Finance based on cash inflows can also be worked out for a long term. A structured hybrid lease system would lessen the burden of creating

huge funding through banking chan-nels alone. Besides, funding of public transport is also possible by introduc-ing bonds through securitisation of assets.

Banks, on the other hand, should create hybrid products wherein they can securitise existing receivables of rail and transport corporations and fund their capital requirements sepa-rately. This is a model similar to road toll collection process involving pub-lic-private partnership (PPP). It can be then replicated also for rail transport.

Generally speaking, transport loans in India are an EMI-based repayment product. But there is a need to restruc-ture these loans to make room for long-term financing alternatives with five to seven years as back-end pay-ment option.

While extending lease for metro rails or monorails, structuring should be done for a longer duration of at least 10-15 years.

TBy NDS Chari

(The views expressed above are the personal views of the author, and the organisation to which the author belongs does not subscribe to it directly or indirectly. The author can be reached at [email protected])

THIS PLACE COULD BE YOURSCALL NEHA SHARMA +91 96544 [email protected]

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When most of the municipal bodies across the country are struggling to provide quality civic services, the Orange City’s experiments with development-without-investment model prove that it is the passion to do something that fetches you results rather than the size of your pocket

By Urban Update [email protected]

he civic body’s JnNURM-PPP model for operating public transport in the city is giving returns without any investment.

At a time, when the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation Limited (MSRTC) was reluctant to run Nagpur’s city transport due to recent losses from the op-erations, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) took the onerous task upon itself.

To begin with, it formed a company — Nagpur Mahanagar Parivahan Ltd (NMPL)

Star Bus ServiceNMC model works where MSRTC’s failed

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Nagpur’s tryst with planning

No fuss about funds

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The secret of ‘Save Nag River’ campaign’s success lies in the participation of citizens for a civic cause

— for the purpose, with elected mu-nicipal corporators on its board, and contracted a private operator to run city buses under the name of ‘Star Bus Service’.

Availing the central government-supported JnNURM scheme for ur-ban public transport, it acquired 240 buses, security deposits for which came from the operator. The buses hit the city roads in 2007 without any in-vestment from the NMC.

Not just that, the Corporation also started getting Rs 3,750 per month for each regular size bus and Rs 2,387 for every smaller one by way of royalty. With the venture yielding good re-

turns, the royalty figures per bus per month now stand revised at Rs 4,000 and Rs 2,546, respectively.

Under the JnNURM-PPP model, 70 percent of the funding cost comes from the central and state govern-ments, while the rest is invested by the private operator. Further, all operation

Nag River restoration drive

For the people, by the people

ag River, which gives the city along its banks the name of Nagpur, once had a life of its own. But with fast

urbanisation taking place along its course, it went on losing its sheen and was finally reduced to a carrier of garbage and sewage. What used to be once the lifeline of Nagpur, on account of being the prime source of water for the city, was now an environ-mental hazard and a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other pests.

Also adding to the woes of Nagpuri-ans was overflowing of the river after every heavy downpour and its water entering the households in low-lying areas. Despite carrying out desilting exercise annually, the authorities had not been able to dig out all the dirt and filth thrown into the river from its bed, leading to a gradual increase in the water level over the passage of time.

Realising the gravity of situation, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) rose up to the occasion and launched a 15-day ‘Save Nag River’

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campaign last year, inviting participa-tion from all sections of the society to restore the river to its pristine glory.

Led by Mayor Anil M Sole, the all-out campaign war evoked a response beyond expectation as Nagpurians flooded the banks of the river for the noble cause. People from all walks of life, including students, professionals, businessmen, corporates, industrial-ists, NGO workers and journalists, turned up in large numbers to offer their voluntary services for the cause. Going a step further, businesses and companies in the field also offered devices and equipment required for cleaning of the river free of cost.

The combined exercise yielded the desired results, proving a boon for those residing along the 17km stretch: desilting helped the rain water flow smoothly and cleaning resulted in localities alongside remaining free of the mosquito menace.

And all this was achieved without any substantial spending on the part of the NMC!

In fact, the river restoration drive turned out to be an exhibition of par-ticipative governance and a show of the power of collective exercise, where-in every stakeholder was motivated to own up the cause. It also proved that much of the civic problems can be handled through meticulous planning and people’s engagement.

Game plan that paid off ♦ No investment required on the part of NMC ♦ Corporation earning regularly through royalties per bus ♦ No headache of operating or maintaining service or fleet ♦ Right to take policy and administrative decisions remain with Cor-

poration ♦ Private operators prevent revenues losses in every possible way ♦ Operation in private hands ensures greater accountability

and maintenance costs have to be borne by the operator, but the ad-ministrative control stays with the Corporation-controlled NMPL.

Currently, the NMPL has a fleet of 470 Star Buses. Of these, nearly 300 hit the road daily to ferry around 250,000 citizens every day.

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n most cities and towns, quantity of water supplied is inadequate owing to lack of proper infrastructure, unequal distribution, poor

maintenance of pipeline network and pilferage. These factors result not only in huge losses and deficient supply at places, but also contaminated water.

Like other cities, Nagpur was also being supplied over 600 million litres per day for a population of about 2.5 million. It was good enough to meet the basic requirement but the problem continued mostly due to the age-old distribution network. Besides, some pockets would get almost a tenth of the water supplied to the entire city, but revenue collection from those ar-eas was zero. That spelt twin troubles for the Nagpur Municipal Corpora-tion (NMC) — losses due to massive

leakages and non-revenue water up amounting to over 50 percent of the total water supplied.

The NMC in 2007 took the initia-tive to implement Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM)-supported 24x7 water-scheme. In this model, the central and state governments contribute 70 percent of the funds, while 30 percent comes from private investors. In other words, civic bodies do not need to in-vestment in this model even though they hold the right to make decisions.

Incidentally, until 2007, Nagpur was the only city to have successfully im-plemented the scheme in Demozone (Dharampeth area). Riding on the suc-

cess, the scheme was later extended to the entire city. And today, the scheme is paying dividends, both in terms of round-the-clock supply of water as well as up to 95 percent revenue col-lection.

For facilitating and operating this extended venture on day-to-day basis, Orange City Water Pvt Ltd (OCW), a joint venture company of Veolia Water India Pvt Ltd — world leaders in water business — and Vishwaraj Environ-ment Ltd — a leading infrastructure company of the country, was formed.

Since the commencement of the project, OCW has laid and replaced more than 300 km of pipeline. The replaced pipes were mostly worn out and were major sources of contami-nation and waste. On these new pipe-lines, over 34,000 new connections have been allotted.

24x7 water scheme

The civic body ensures round-the-clock water supply to the city through meticulous planning without running after funds

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During a recent interaction with Urban Update, Nagpur Mayor Anil M Sole listed the steps taken for giving a sustainable solution to water woes of the city:

♦ Implementation of 24x7 water scheme based on PPP model, which earns the civic body rev-enue without making any invest-ment

♦ A special purpose vehicle com-prising private companies entrusted the task of operating 24x7 water scheme

♦ Private operators made ac-countable to NMC by denying them the right to take deci-sions other than operational

ones, including allotment of a new connection or withdrawal of a defaulter’s connection

♦ Using hi-tech leak detection de-vices, pipes changed only where required and not in stretches, thus saving on cost

♦ Water meter installation made prerequisite to water connection allotments

♦ Public taps in slums replaced with individual connections to enhance water usage accountability

♦ A slab-based water tariff mecha-nism devised to bill only addition-al units under a particular slab at a higher rate and not the entire unit count for the month

From the horse’s mouth

Where there’s will, there’s way!

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he Nagpur Municipal Corpo-ration (NMC) had reserved a piece of land at Bhandewadi measuring about 57 acres for

management of its municipal solid waste (MSW) as per the City Development Plan of 1966. The site started being used as a fulltime dumping ground since 1997. Un-til 2009, more than 10 lakh MT of garbage was dumped at the Bhandewadi dumping ground.

But, with the introduction of the Mu-nicipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 2000 and the rising complaints of discomfort by the public in view of the open dumping of garbage at Bhandewadi, the NMC decided to ap-point an agency to scientifically process the MSW generated in the city.

Since the land at Bhandewadi was al-ready reserved for the management of MSW, the Corporation made a prudent decision to develop the existing site to sci-entifically treat and dispose of the MSW of the city.

The technology options available with the Nagpur Municipal Corporation were:

♦ Bioremediation ♦ Capping of the dumps ♦ Makeover of the exiting dump yardBut, bioremediation of such huge piece

of land was not possible, as it would have been an extremely time consuming pro-cess, and capping of the same would have given the corporation no option to reuse the land at least for the next 30 years, as per the MSW Rules guidelines. So, the

Corporation decided to go for makeover of the existing site by deciding to do part-capping and clearing the land for the pro-cessing facility to make it a landfill site.

A tender was, therefore, floated and the NMC in April 2009 awarded the contract to Hanjer Biotech Energies Pvt Ltd for set-ting up a processing plant with a process-ing capacity of 750 MT/day and two land-fills, which would last for 15-20 years, with 20 percent of the remnant material from the plant being sent for landfilling.

The processing plant, thus, started op-erations in the year 2010 and continues to process the entire quantity of waste trans-ported from the city to the plant.

The old waste dumped at the site was scientifically capped and covered with vegetation. The capped dump has now taken the shape of a mountain with a table top that recently hosted the NMC-conducted 45th AGM of All India Council of Mayors.

Photographs of the site before and after the installation of the plant are a testimo-ny of the makeover of the once avoidable dumping ground.

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Financial benefits ♦ Less money being spent on the

makeover of the dumping ground as compared to other available options

♦ Precious land saved that would have otherwise been required for landfilling

♦ Old land reclaimed by making way for setting up the waste pro-cessing plant

Environmental benefits ♦ The processing plant makes zero

discharge of emission into air and no effluent is generated

♦ It offers odour-less operations ♦ No groundwater pollution caused

from the plant and the landfill ♦ The capped land can be reused for

recreational purpose within five years after the capacity of the land is exhausted

The company employs an efficient technology to turn Nagpur’s municipal solid waste dumping ground into a site for public recreation

Hanjer Biotech at work

Apart from replacing the leaking pipelines, small and large abrupt leakages are plugged timely with the help of an advanced technique of leak detection, which not only saves water wastage, but also reduces the risk of induction of pollutants into the distribu-tion network.

OCW’s quest for quality waterOCW has been monitoring chlorination at various points in the water distribution net-work, such as ESR outlets and inlets at the consumer end.

The task of ESR cleaning, which has remained ignored for quite a long time, was tak-en up on priority by OCW in order to ensure clean water supply. It developed an ad-vanced in-house technique for cleaning the ESRs, which has considerably reduced the time required for the process. This results into lesser disruption in the routine supply. In the last six months, 39 ESRs have been cleaned. In addition, old WTPs, ESRs, GSRs and MBRs are being rehabilitated to en-sure safe and clean water.

All these measures have to-gether resulted in a significant improvement in the quality of water. As per the results of the state government’s Regional Public Health Laboratory (RPHL), the percentage of fit samples of water had reached 99.21 percent by Dec 2013, which was 89.70 percent in Dec 2011.

A 24x7 call centre has also been set up by OCW for reg-istering, redirecting and re-dressing the customer com-plaints. In addition, customer care centres are established in each zone to provide ease of access to the consumers. This has significantly reduced the complaint redressal time.

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‘Will double bed count in hospitals in same budget’An architect by profession, an activist out of passion and now a minister by persuation... That’s been the journey of Delhi’s Health Minister Satyendra Jain, to date. Urban Update recently caught up with the man of many facets to know his and his government’s views on the state of healthcare services in the national capital and the ways to address them. Excerpts from the interview:

What has been your experience of Delhi’s healthcare system so far?Healthcare machinery in Delhi has virtually collapsed...services are ex-tremely poor, infrastructure is insuf-ficient, and the state of management and governance leave much to be de-sired. As a result, an average citizen’s satisfaction level from the primary and secondary healthcare services is abysmally low today.

Where are the gaps?We are assessing the condition of the healthcare services in Delhi. As of now, we understand that huge mis-management of infrastructure and charity-type attitude of the healthcare delivery system are some of the issues that need to be dealt with.

In infrastructure, the development has all been unplanned…hospitals have not been designed properly and a lot of space has been wasted.


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On health budgetIt’s not about getting more funds…it’s about optimising the utilisation of available funds

On tasks aheadHuge mismanagement of infrastructure and charity-type attitude of the healthcare delivery system are some of the issues that need to be dealt with

On modus operandiCharting out a roadmap and a detailed plan for Delhi’s healthcare system in the next 45 days

Has fund also been a cause for the infrastructure-related challenges?With the same budget, we can build more hospitals, provide more beds and expand outreach of service deliv-ery to more citizens. It’s not about get-ting more funds…it’s about optimising the utilisation of available funds. In some cases, construction of hospitals took 8-10 years, which escalated the costs by up to 300 per cent. This cost overrun has to be done away with.

How do you intend to improve healthcare in the capital?Improvement in infrastructure, bet-terment of service delivery in hospi-tals and a more focussed healthcare system are on the top of our agenda. We are charting out a roadmap and will finalise a detailed plan for Delhi’s healthcare system in the next 45 days.

How do you plan to better primary healthcare services?We are working on the plan, so it would be premature to talk about how we are going to address the primary

healthcare issues. For now, all I would say is that this is a grey area and we need to improve it.

Any thoughts on preventive health-care services?Focus of successive Delhi plans has been only on the curative healthcare. But we are planning to shift the focus to preventive healthcare. We will come up with a Behaviour Change Commu-nication Plan in the coming months. Sanitation condition, especially in slums, needs a coordinated effort in tandem with other agencies active in the field. We also intend to address the issue of multiplicity of agencies. Be-sides, we are planning to enforce 100 percent immunisation.

Your three commitments?Our goal is to provide primary health-care centres within 500-metre radius in all localities, double hospital beds without any extra budget and to achieve zero maternal mortality rate.

[email protected]

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Sweeper scrubberFor efficient use for steel construction, Roots Multiclean Ltd. Company has created a sweeper scrubber called Powerboss Commander T82, which is ideal for tough industrial environment. The product gives the operator the ability to remove heavy debris such as carbon settlement.

Features ♦ The oversized cleanout ports with simple screw-on caps facilitate

easy recovery tank draining and sludge removal ♦ The quick-change disk brushes help remove years of caked, oily

built-up on the floor ♦ It is ensures scrubbing and pre-sweeping simultaneously

Air Whip SystemIs an additional product by the Robotic Consultancy Services and can be used to suck in the dust through an air compressor.

Features ♦ This air compressor supplies air at 8-9 psi pressure ♦ The high pressure air instigates the plastic whips which in turn

dislodges the dust caked on the duct surface ♦ Very useful in removing stubborn coagulated dust and foreign

objects embedded onto the duct surface

Duct Inspection RobotMumbai-based Robotic Consultancy Services has come up with a unique product called Duct Inspection Robot,

which is suitable for professionals and FM service providers engaged in duct cleaning operations.

Features ♦ It has compact inspection system with integrated

digital video recorder controlled by PS2 joystick ♦ Adjustable LED lamps to switch between front and

rear cameras ♦ The equipment comes in a light weight modular box

for easy and safe transportation

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LUMILUX T8 ESPromoting low energy consumption, OSRAM has introduced a new lumen product called LUMILUX T8 ES, for saving electricity in areas like public buildings, offices, industry, shops.

Features ♦ Instant energy savings in existing CCG/

LLG systems ♦ Reduction in CO2 emissions ♦ Very good lumen maintenance: 90 per cent

throughout the service lifetime of the lamp

Water meterWater meter is essential to ensure accurate and equal

distribution of water flow, and ZENNER AQUAMET has introduced a water meter that is inferential and helpful for

knowing such data.

Features ♦ Sensitive and accurate to flow rates

♦ Sealed against tampering ♦ Leakproof and has self lubricating gears and bearings

Web Based Municipal SolutionMunicipality Product is a web based gis and geospatial

product of CyberSWIFT. Municipal Product can help manage various works of municipality such as Holding

Tax, Birth and Death Registration, Socio Economic Data management and Holding registration.

Features ♦ Multiple views of data through web based interfaces

♦ Import/export facilities to standard open GIS formats

♦ Thematic maps with high visual impact ♦ Statistical analysis on spatial features with web

interfaces

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eTIME Conference

Exhibition on safe drinking water

ocussing on the technical chal-lenges of the en-gineering and

technology industry, the Kar-pangam College of Engineer-ing, Coimbatore, on January 24, 2014, conducted a confer-ence on the emerging trends that could help shape the fu-ture of this sector.

The conference - Emerging trends in Thermal, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineer-ing (eTIME 14) - sought to pro-vide a platform for knowledge sharing among researchers, academicians and industrial-ists across the country. The topics covered included find-ings of new theoretical and experimental researches in mechanical engineering.

The event encouraged sub-

mission of critical review arti-cles and technical notes cov-ering advancements in recent research innovations in the al-lied fields.

The conference added more vision by having expert lec-tures by eminent resource per-sons such as R Rajasekar, Prin-cipal Scientist at CSIR-Central Electrochemical Research Institute, Karaikudi, and Dr S Vinodh, Assistant Professor of the Department of Production Engineering, National Insti-tute of Technology, Tiruchi-rappalli.

imed at find-ing solutions to the challenges faced in the global supply of

safe drinking water, monthly publication Water Today or-ganised the “Water Expo and Watman”, - the eighth edition of the annual exhibition and conference - in Chennai from January 20 to 22.

The three-day conference

and workshop, held at the lo-cal Chennai Trade Centre in Nandambakkam, provided a platform to the participants to share knowledge on develop-ments in the field.

About 400 exhibitors from 25 countries, including the US, Germany, China, Nigeria and Canada, showcased their technologies and products for the industries into water and wastewater sectors.

The conference covered a gamut of topics, including green initiatives for sustain-able water management, via-bility for wastewater treatment and zero liquid discharge, said S Shanmugam, Managing Di-rector of the Water Today.

Events Calender Enertech World ExpoFebruary 10-12, 2014, Bombay Exhibition Centre, Mumbai

Stakeholders Workshop on India’s Renewable Energy Roadmap InitiativeFebruary 11, 2014, CII NR Headquarters, Level 3, Sector 31 A, Chandigarh

India SMART Grid SummitFebruary 12, 2014, Hotel Le Méridien, New Delhi

Conference on Go Green PuducherryFebruary 14, 2014, Hotel Anandha Inn

Great Indian Heritage Fest, 2014Februray 15-16, 2014, Ampitheatre, Sayaji Garden, Vadodara

International Symposium on Integrated Water Resource Management February 19-21, 2014, Calicut, Kerala

2014 International Conference on Environmental Engineering (ICEE 2014)February 21-23, 2014, Pune

2014 International Conference on Civil and Urban Engineering (ICCUE 2014)February 21-23, 2014, Pune

2014 International Conference on Renewable Energy (ICRE 2014) February 21-23, 2014, Pune

Two day National Conference on Sustainable Water Resources Management February 21-22, 2014, Vizianagaram, Andhra Pradesh

Tamil Nadu Smart CitiesFebruary 25, 2014 , Hotel Taj Corammandel

6th Affordable Housing Summit & Excellence AwardsFebruary 26, 2014, Hotel Le Méridien, New Delhi

National Conference on ICT and Awards ‘Developing the Nation Digitally’March 4, 2014, Hotel Le Méridien, New Delhi

Conference on Fire Safety and Security (ConFiSS)-2014March 4-5, 2014, FICCI, New Delhi

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‘Urban Update’ unveiled

1. FIRST LOOK: Former BJP President Nitin Gadkari unveils the ‘Vision Issue’ of Urban Update magazine in the presence of Mayors of various cities of the country and a host of other dignitaries at the 45th AGM of the All India Council of Mayors (AICM) in Nagpur on Jan 11, 2014.

2. A HELPING HAND: AIILSG President Dr Jatin Modi helps senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari unwrap the magazine. Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Urban Update Ranjit S Chavan (extreme left), and Nagpur Mayor and AICM Chairman Anil Sole (extreme right) are also seen.

3. WHY URBAN UPDATE: Dr Jatin Modi speaks to the media at an impromptu press conference soon after the magazine unveiling ceremony.

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TAKEAWAYSfrom Nagpur

Transparency, cost-efficiency and public engagement are the key words that emerged from the recent mayors’ meet that discussed glitches in the service delivery system

t was at the 45th AGM of All In-dia Council of Mayors (AICM) in Nagpur recently that the first citizens of various cities

had converged to deliberate on reforms, good practices and challenges in deliv-ering good governance. The gathering was august, purpose solemn and the outcome was inspiring.

The deliberations and my interac-tions with the mayors threw up three clear suggestions — which I would prefer to call ‘takeaways from Nagpur’ — that no civic body can afford to miss while shaping up its civic service deliv-ery system. Let’s have a look:

Transparency & accountabilityGreater power for local governments must go hand-in-hand with greater local transparency and individual ac-countability, so as to improve public service by informing choices and stim-ulating growth of citizens.

Local governments need to provide information on spending without ex-ception. For greater transparency, digitisation of services should be a priority. But, while some of the corpo-rations and local bodies have taken to e-payment and e-tendering systems, others are yet to fall in line. Websites of most municipal corporations are not updated on day-to-day basis. There is no clear mechanism for disseminat-ing regular and updated information, while the IT cells are facing manpower crunch. Local bodies need to think be-yond orthodox government-to-public approach and start adopting citizen-centric service models.

Cost efficiencyCorporations with smaller budgets face lots of challenges in meeting the citi-zens’ demands. Engaging private play-ers through PPP model is critical to bridging the demand and supply gap in infrastructure and services. Cost saving measures needs to be integrated with the planning of projects. Project delays due to inefficiency in management should be done away with. 24x7 water supply project of the Nagpur Municipal Corporation and e-municipality project on Open Source Database by the Pune Municipal Corporation are examples of how to decrease the cost of projects and lessen the budget pressure while ensur-ing quality service.

Public participationEfforts of the Nagpur Municipal Cor-poration towards the Nag River resto-ration are commendable due to their uniqueness in engaging public and oth-er stakeholders. A meticulously planned 15-day campaign ensured its reach to the citizens, and a change in their per-ception towards water pollution. A year on, the impact of the campaign is still visible thanks to public engagement.

It’s time we adopted deliberative and collective action strategies, so as to involve the public and center public management around the citizens. Local governments need to initiate steps to create more opportunities for citizens’ participation and input in government’s performance evaluation and policy de-cision making.

IApresh Chandra Mishra Managing Editor

[email protected]

Documents

Urban update february 2014