Over the past few days, DNA has been highlighting the sorry state of affairs in the city’s public transport system. Experts say the city’s traffic has grown at such a breakneck speed that by the time an idea travelled from the drawing board to the road, a sea of vehicles overran it. Here are some of the ideas that have been touted often, but have yet to traverse the distance to become game-changers.
Congestion tax
Traffic experts have been debating a congestion pricing mechanism for the city for the past decade. With a city that is more in length than width and with most important seats of power and economy concentrated in the thinnest part of its topography – South Mumbai, beyond Grant Road – experts say a congestion tax could end up hurting motorists for an historical anomaly that they were not responsible for.
“With everything from Vidhan Bhavan, Mantralaya, the Nariman Point business district, the small offices agglomeration in Fort, to the police and railway headquarters inSouth Mumbai, it is natural that the flow of people going to work would be south-bound. Taxing motorists for a historical reality would be unfair. It would be wrong to think that everyone coming to South Mumbai is out to visit Marine Drive or sit at Chowpatty or Gateway of India. People come to the southern part of the city for work and you can’t penalise them for that,” said a senior railway official.
Parking charges
It has been discussed for almost a decade now but has yet to see the light of day. The concept, as explained by transport expert Ashok Datar, is to have parking charges depending on the congestion in the area. “It is just like the price of flats. So if you want to park at Nariman Point, then you pay much more than say some place which has more space on its roads than Nariman Point. It is happening in some of the bigger cities in the world like London and there is no reason why we can’t follow it. It will work very well if we ensure that no one parks wrongly,” explains Datar.
Cyclical timetable for locals
Easily the oldest debate in the suburban railway, proponents of the cyclical timetable believe it is best for a city like Mumbai. Its opponents say the system could lead to chaos. A cyclical timetable is the one in which trains for different destinations repeat themselves at a fixed time every hour. For example if a CST-Panvel service is scheduled say every ten minutes, then you will have a CST-Panvel at 10 minutes from the hour, 20 minutes, 30 minutes and so on and so forth. It allows a person to have an idea of when his/her trains would be arriving.
The opponents of the cyclical timetable point out that the system does not work in countries like India where the suburban tracks are also used by long-distance trains, Mumbai being a prime example. Moreover, the opponents of the system say that the cyclical timetable works best when there are minimal terminal stations. However, they point out, on Central Railway’s suburban system, the main line CST-Kasara-Karjat-Khopoli stretch has 18 terminals and the Harbour Line has 10. The CR had made some preparations to implement the cyclical timetable on a trial basis on the Harbour line last September, but soon shelved the idea.
BRTS
On paper it looks perfect. Though Ahmedabad’s experiment with the Bus Rapid Transit System is encouraging, it’s implementation in Mumbai is nowhere in sight. With a road length of about 1,900kms, keeping a dedicated lane for BRTS would not be feasible, say officials. “We are adding almost 96,000 vehicles a year on the city roads. Expecting a bus to be given a lane won’t work,” said an official.
Quadricycles
Last August, the Union government had approved a whole new category of vehicles called ‘quadricycles’ and placed it between autorickshaws and car. The thinking was that it could be a perfect amalgamation of a taxi and an autorickshaw, and could usher in a new type of public transport vehicle. However, since then, the quadricycle proposal is with a committee that is debating the technicalities, including whether it could run on the highways. Firms like Bajaj – with its RE60 – and even the Tatas – with its IRIS range – have shown interest in the quadricycle but are waiting for the specifications customised for India.
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