Opinion Bringing speed to bus rides

The Government of India’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM),launched in 2005-06,provided the city with funds for delivering India’s first full BRTS. Of the total cost of Rs 1,000 crore,half came from the JNNURM and the other half from the AMC. The JNNURM portion was split into 35 per cent from the Government of India and 15 per cent from the government of Gujarat.

The planning and design of the BRTS was done by Ahmedabad’s Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology University (CEPT). AMC is responsible for building the infrastructure,and Ahmedabad Janmarg Limited (AJL) was set up as a special purpose vehicle to execute the project and manage its operations. To this end,AJL has entered into a set of well-structured arrangements with the private sector. Its board has the AMC commissioner as chairman,with representatives of associated government departments like the AUDA,transport experts,and more significantly,the leader of the opposition in the municipal corporation,as members.

For a city of 466 square km,Ahmedabad has a well-established ring and radial road network (5 rings and 17 radials). Most of the selected routes connect to the vital junctions of the city and are placed either on wide rights of way that are already there,or on secondary roads. This has meant that the corridor is able to accommodate the requirements of the BRTS,integrate well with existing infrastructure without major land acquisition,and contribute to easing traffic in a significant way.

The buses ply on the BRTS corridor from 6 am to 11.30 pm at intervals of 2.5 to 4 minutes during peak hours and 6 to 8 minutes during off-peak hours,so that people do not have to wait for buses. The average bus speed of 25 km per hour during the peak period is the highest in the country.

The average price of tickets is Rs 5 for 5 km,which is about 40 per cent higher than for the city bus service. But the average collection per bus per day for BRTS is Rs 10,000,compared with Rs 3,000 on average for the city bus service. Surveys by CEPT suggest that about 50 per cent of the commuters have shifted to BRTS from the city bus service,around 28 per cent from autorickshaws and about 21 per cent from two-wheelers and cars.

AMC has put in place the support infrastructure for BRTS which includes 51 bus stations,depots,and terminals,as well as a centrally-managed state-of-the-art control room for tracking the buses. It demands no return on this investment. The automatic ticketing system as well as the passenger information system at the bus stops,which provides passengers with real-time information on bus timings,have been outsourced.

So far,Chartered Logistics has won the contract for 70 buses,based on a national competitive tender. The plan is to have 3-4 private operators,each owning 50-70 buses,as the system expands. The bus operator is expected to bring buses as per the specifications and operate according to the schedule provided by AJL,and is paid Rs 35 per km for operation and maintenance with a guaranteed payment for 72,000 km per bus per year calculated over the entire fleet. The service quality is monitored and penalties are levied on deficiencies,since reliability is the core brand value of the service. In promoting the brand “Janmarg”,free trial runs were carried out for three months on a stretch of 13 km where citizens used the BRTS,and the feedback from the public as well as experts was used to refine the operations. As I. P. Gautam,Ahmedabad municipal commissioner and chairman of AJL put it,“the dependability factor has been a source of success of the system.”

At 34 km,the BRTS of Ahmedabad has not reached the scale of 50-60 km when it is expected to break even. But even at this early stage,AJL is not making any operating loss. The sources of revenue are fare collection,fines for service lapses,advertisements,and the pay-and-park system. Advertisement rights have been given only on 12.5 km (roadway and bus stations) so far. A beginning has also been made in setting up a transport fund into which some of the revenue is earmarked for managing AJL’s operations. With the expansion of operations,AJL’s operating costs per unit are declining; and with full exploitation of the advertisement potential,revenue streams are likely to increase further. Once 45 new feeder buses are procured under the JNNURM,this would make a major difference to the economic viability of the system. The feeder buses will bring passengers into four big parking lots that are being built for the purpose of providing connectivity to the BRTS.

Last year has seen many accolades for Janmarg. In December 2009,it won the “best mass rapid transit system” in the country from the Government of India. In January 2010,it received the “sustainable transport award” from the US-based Transport Research Board,making Ahmedabad the first city in South Asia to bag the prestigious international award.

An efficient and affordable public transport system is urgently needed in most Indian cities. As Prof Shivanand Swamy of CEPT,a principal planner of the system,explains,“Developing mobility solutions in urban areas is not about selecting a metro or a BRT system. It is all about putting together an integrated land-use transport system which meets the varying needs of the people and matches with their socio-economic conditions and rising aspirations.” While still in its early stage,the Ahmedabad BRTS has shown a way for a sustainable Indian model of a rapid transit system.

Ahluwalia is chairperson of ICRIER and chair of the high-powered expert committee on urban infrastructure. Nair is a consultant to the committee. Views are personal