Page 58 - Traffic Infra Tech

COVER STORY PLUS

on the left hand side of the road and Are you implementing BRTS in want him to come on a scooter or a
comes to the right hand side of the Telangana State? two wheeler, you take a BRTS closer to
road. After some time, the bus driver We are thinking about it. Right his home, or an intermediate transport
needs to move back to the left side now we are on the Metro. We have literally to his doorstep. If he is getting
of the road to stop at a bus stop. So, to develop a system to evacuate the into two or three modes of transport
for a 30 or 40km journey, for every 200 to 300 people it will download at to reach his workplace and back, look
half kilometer the bus keeps going each stop as we cannot make them at the ticketing system. Can I have a
left and right. And each time it moves stand there. BRTS is a very good single ticket and get into all these three
from inside to outside and outside to solution for that. Our Metro will be different types of modes of transport?
inside, it stops the entire traffic behind inaugurated in November by the It is not the case today. So we need
it. If this bus gets one dedicated lane, Honourable Prime Minister. to think about that: Each time I do
all this will not happen. So all the other not have to stand in the line and buy
vehicles will have an easy access to the Despite saying for decades that the ticket. That single ticket system is
road, and easy flow of traffic will be Public Transport is the solution, another solution.
ensured. Fundamentally, there is no we realise its quality in India Buying this ticket online, as a prepaid
need to add one more lane for the leaves a lot to be desired. So, how ticket, which I buy before starting from
BRTS. Existing lanes are sufficient to will it become a solution? home, is the next layer. So these kind
dedicate one lane for the BRTS. Basically the integration of Public of solutions will give convenience to the
Also, the passengers will not have Transport is the issue. You are spending passengers/ commuters. Ultimately,
to cross the roads. So their safety is hundreds of thousands of crores of what succeeds in the transport sector
ensured too. And since properties will rupees on doing a Metro. A Metro takes is that solution which gives convenience
be developed along the bus stations, thousands of people in each car, and to the commuter. You may give a
commercial activity will take place. drops them suddenly at the destination. great air conditioned bus but if it is not
That is, the property owned by the bus So the problem as mentioned above is: convenient to me, I will not get into it.
operators or by the local administration how do you evacuate those thousand
is going to get leveraged, which will, people? So that integration called the Why are the aggregators successful
in turn subsidise the BRTS Project. multi modal transport, is something today? Because there is a convenience
Therefore, the ticket size per passenger which is not looked into. So we are factor there. So as policy makers it is
per kilometer comes down. If you look at looking into only the part of the our job to make travel seamless and
the positives of BRTS travel: it is a healthy solution, not the complete solution. more efficient.
travel, it is an air conditioned bus, it has Metro on its own is not the solution. What steps are you taking on
low floor (passengers do not have to Metro, in combination, with the multi road safety? Any good regulations
climb five steps to enter), and it takes modal transport solutions, is the actual or awareness campaigns you are
large volumes of commuters. That is the solution. Second thing: a commuter looking at?
best part. You are doing away with 20 starts from home on a scooter and Like any other state in the country,
cars and having only one BRTS bus. parks it somewhere. If you do not Telangana State is also concerned
about the number of deaths that take
place in road accidents. In 2016, India
lost 150,000 precious lives in road
accidents. Telangana lost 7219 lives.
Unfortunately, 50 percent of those
people belonged to the age group of
15 to 35 years. The United Nations has
estimated that the loss to the country
because of these deaths in accidents
is 3 percent of GDP. Now let me put
this three percent of GDP in the right
perspective. Total contribution of all the
OEMs in the huge supply chain of auto
industry to the GDP is only 7.2 per cent.
While the industry adds 7.2 per cent to

58 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER ’17 / TrafficInfraTech www.trafficinfratech-com-500653.hostingersite.com