Mini BRTS for Vadodara on the cards

Vadodara city, with its rich culture and heritage, is getting something new – a swanky new transport system. Though chief minister Narendra Modi announced a Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) for Vadodara, the city’s heritage and old, narrow old roads will make this difficult.

That’s why the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (Cept) University of Ahmedabad is planning and designing a mini BRTS for Vadodara.

Talks are in the planning stage at the moment. Elaborating about it, Cept director, Prof Shivanand Swamy said, “Since Vadodara has narrow roads, we are planning to have buses which are narrow in width, with less capacity but of high quality. Such ‘mini’ buses are being planned for Vadodara as well as Surat.”

Often called Sanskar Nagari, Vadodara has roads which measure between 16-20 m in width.

“Such narrow roads cannot have 8.5 m dedicated for BRTS. The narrow buses will make the system accessible to passengers of older parts of the city,” added Swamy. He also said some of the major roads of the city can have standard sized buses.

While the standard buses measure around 2.66 m in width, the ‘mini’ buses to be introduced in Vadodara will be 2.3 m wide and 8 m long. Though the buses will accommodate fewer passengers, the frequency can be increased depending on the demand. Municipal commissioner of Vadodara Municipal Corporation, Ashwini Kumar said, “The city has total 1,000 km of road of all kinds, out of which 30 km has been identified for BRTS operation.” He added that the identified roads measure between 24-36 m.

CEPT will carry out a detailed household survey in Vadodara to find out the travel pattern of Barodians. “We want to understand the mobility patterns of the city - the different modes of transport commuters’ use at different timings throughout the day,” added Swamy. The survey, which will begin next week, will go on for six months.