‘Significant effort is being made to enhance Public Transport’

We have to look not only at the road users or the road infrastructure – whether it is supporting or not, but at your vehicles, your classifications, and the technology in your vehicles too. Today one of the biggest emerging concerns is that of the aggregators like Uber and OLA. Many questions arise: Are your drivers well trained? If a young lady is travelling after doing her night shifts at 2am — is she safe? And if there is any apprehension, how can she invoke an intermediation? So the drivers’ credentials, their capabilities… everything is getting questioned and more and more certainty is being arrived at. But I don’t claim that we in the ministry, in the government, are up to the mark. I don’t think we can ever claim that but I can certainly assure this house that we are on the right way forward.

When I joined NHAI about ten months prior to joining this Ministry and somebody told me that ‘we have identified more than 500 black spots in this country’, I was incapable of understanding it. So I asked: ‘what is a black spot and how do you identify it or call it a black spot?’ I was told that ‘when during a period of last three years three accidents have taken place at a spot leading to death, that is considered to be a black spot’. It was a very weird definition, as for example, all three could be travelling in the same vehicle or there could be three different accidents. Whether that accident is on account of road engineering defects or on account of road speeding, or drunken driving, or not following the lane, the reasons could be different. But all said and done once it is identified, a follow up to look at the reasons of the accidents taking place there is important — whether the road geometry needs to be improved in the area, whether it is the junction point for one or two roads crossing through and whether there is need for provision of vehicle or underpass or a flyover.

So some of those which are long term features have already been completed in about 118 of those parts during the last year and this year. We have carried out an analysis and the rate of accidents has sharply fallen in those improved black spot areas. So it is not limited to the geometry of the roads, quality of the roads, and signage on the roads, which though is most important. I would be most dissatisfied as a person if the road markings are not proper. And the information content being displayed on the road signage, which means that I am in this jurisdiction, and the next destination is this, etc.,should be perfect. All important destinations should be properly shown so that the person takes the turn at the right place. If a person is not notified 500mtrs before any important information whether he has to take a right or left, then I think you are creating an opportunity for an accident.

FM Radio has started coming out with advance warnings with regard to the traffic congestions on the roads and following that, you can take your corrective measures but I am very worried that the moment anybody says you have that information on your phone, thanks to the IT, you begin looking at the phone. But the golden rule is that when we are driving we are not supposed to see anything else. So any solution which talks about the use of a smart phone or about looking at the smart phone when I am on the driving seat is not welcome. Let that smart phone be for anything else but it should not distract my attention from driving. The solution could be probably that screen which is now coming in middle segment vehicles which can capture all those messages.

In terms of the vehicle capabilities, and rules and regulations, the Ministry has already pushed significant amendments in the Motor Vehicles Act which has already been passed by the Lok Sabha in the month of July. It could not go to the Rajya Sabha and has been referred to a Select Committee. The Committee is working at a very fast pace and it has promised that it will submit its report to the house on the first day of the sitting of the next session. That would bring about a change in terms of the vehicle regulation. It is going to be a game changer, both in terms of deterrence to non-compliance and in terms of encouraging compliance. And the good Samaritans have been given adequate protection through the law.

I am lucky to be working with a Minister who is extremely pushy and who wants something to be delivered every day. So last night we were at his house till 9pm talking about a meet of State Transport Ministers and Secretaries that we are organizing on October 19 in Vadodara. And while they are at the Vadodara site, they want to show them Vadodara’s bus port because it is more on the pattern of an airport with all the facilities. It is to expose them to it as it might motivate them to start with at least one such facility in their state.

As a matter of fact, the Ministry has already taken an initiative to set up an Integrated Transport Systems facility at Varanasi, not because it is our Prime Minister’s constituency but because it is the site which offers you ample opportunities to create a multi-modal intra linkage. We are planning to set up and develop in about 30 acres a three-mode facility which will have the bus, the rail and the inland waterways at one place as a multimodal station. It will be replicated in Nagpur which is both rail as well as the bus station.

The Ministry is taking these initiatives despite these sectors being in the domain of the state on a large scale because we want to create a few pieces which can have a demonstration effect. Then, the states can go ahead with those in their own manner. The Public Transport is the most important part of mobility, and has to be seamlessly integrated into the system. But our buses have not come up to the level of quality of buses in the West because we have not pushed them to do so in any way.

So now, here is a demanding public, and a demanding government in terms of improvement in the quality of the buses as well as the quality of ride. The personalized vehicles are growing at a pace which is more than 10% CAGR. So if no significant effort is made to enhance Public Transport to reduce the personalized vehicles, this very Ministry will be tasked with creating one additional lane on its entire NH network every three years, which is going to be extremely difficult and challenging. I am sure that smart and intelligent mobility moves, integrated seamlessly from the origin point to the destination point involving the sectors of road, and Motor Vehicle Transportation Act as well as the most important factor — the citizen interface, should take us to a more pleasant experience in future.