From disruptive thinking to holistic policies, experts outline Pune’s mobility roadmap

The Maha Metro chief spoke about disruption as a starting point to improvement. “If we are not willing to even disrupt our own lives, we can’t talk of any change. In the next 10 years, if we make 200 km of network in our city, we might have 50 per cent people with access to a metro station within 1 km. Then, you may imagine having a good life for the future,” he said.

Hardikar joked that “We survived the last five years of Ganeshkhind Road somehow. Now, we are going to start the next five years of Sinhagad Road and Hadapsar Road. But, this sacrifice will be worthwhile for a sustainable future.”

Among the disruptions that Hardikar mentioned was if corporates could come up with a plan where employees don’t have to travel at all or if a different method of commuting could be thought of. “At present, we are commuting with a purpose (of travelling) in one direction during a given point of time, and that is congesting the entire mobility corridor in that one direction during peak hours. So, maybe we will have to think of something different with regard to all these things,” he said.

The day’s event, where solutions were the focus, began with the Top Management Consortium Foundation announcing they had signed an MoU with the Pune traffic police and will be their soft skill partner. In a concept note presented by Ajay Aggarwal, convenor, Top Management Consortium Foundation, the traffic problems of the city were laid out – a major issue being the low use of public transport compared to metros such as Mumbai and Delhi.

“We need at least 7,000-10,000 comfortable and good quality, preferably electric, buses. We must optimise and have flexible routes, as we are still running old routes though the city has expanded. There is a need for strategic integration with the Metro and we need to discuss how to do last mile integration of buses with the Metro. How can we make last mile connectivity much more efficient?” he said.

Some of the solutions involved having a customer-centric, competent and motivated management. Another was to bring PMPML, which is under the PMC, under the PMRDA, a larger body which is much more centrally managed. “What we are suggesting is a private-public partnership, with private partners running and managing the mobile resources of the bus, whereas the fixed infrastructure, such as bus stops, can continue being managed by PMPML,” said Aggarwal.

For Pandit, a viable solution would involve “social engagement, technology involvement, an economics or investment model and policies and procedures”. He discussed the possibility of shared vehicles, proposing whether private individuals can open their vehicles to persons they are distantly connected with, providing the latter a ride if both were travelling on the same route at the same time. He suggested leveraging social media platforms, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, to generate a sense of connectivity. The other issue he spoke about was regarding a regulatory one — can a private person run a taxi service? Pandit was of the opinion that these obstacles can be tackled for the cause of reducing the load on roads.

“We need a lot more buses. The question is how can you put more buses on crowded roads? But, statistics show that, if there are good quality buses, the number of cars go down. If you were to look at the number of passengers that can sit in a per square foot area of a bus, it is far higher than a car,” he said.

According to Sharma, layered road systems — such as what can be seen at Pune University chowk — and effective road networks are the need of the hour alongside proper, holistic policies. “Corporates can create groups that can request the government to cover certain areas and create a holistic policy. A holistic policy means that we should have a common platform in which PMC, PCMC, PMRDA, Metro, police and all other stakeholders should be on a common platform. This will help design a policy on how Pune should be after 100 years. If we are deciding the policy for two years, three years or five years, it will not work. We have to plan beyond that,” he said.

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