Everyone should feel deeply concerned over this report in the Times of India by Somit Sen today about the serious crisis in the BEST bus undertaking in Mumbai, its fleet is shrinking instead of growing to meet a rising demand. Even those who are rich and are never likely to travel by bus should feel concerned because this has long term impact on the city.
Buses are very important for reducing congestion on the road, but the government is neglecting them and doing everything to add to the congestion by hugely promoting high rise constructions and increasing motor vehicles on the road.
The BEST is the lifeline of the city, daily carrying nearly 35 lakh commuters while the suburban railways, central and western, carry a total of 75 lakh people. Yet this is the very sector that is being discriminated against, neglected.
The government deserves he strongest criticism for utter neglect of the bus lifeline. At the same time it is splurging thousands of crores on the Metro railway whose ridership is extremely poor. The authorities stand condemned, daily skeletons are coming out , the mismanagement of the Metro can no longer be hidden despite all the spending of money and spreading false reports through the media.
Against this background it important to note that experts suggested several low cost , constructive suggestions yesterday at a meeting convened by Ashok Datar, transport expert, and his colleagues in the Mumbai mobility forum.
Mr Mohan Paranjape, who has constructed big projects abroad in the last forty years, said there was great scope to raise thousands of crores of rupees annually by charging for car parking in public spaces. That can be used for spending on public transport. A win win situation. Ideally experts feel car use must be discouraged in the overall interest of the metropolis.
There was strong criticism of car-centric, anti people projects being pushed by the authorities. Ashok Datar said after all the money spent on the Bandra Worli sea link, the number of vehicles using it was far below capacity.
The MMRDA is now lamenting the congestion in the Bandra Kurla complex. This situation would not have arisen if the bus rapid transit system had continued. The scheme launched with his initiative had yielded excellent results but was discontinued, Datar said.
Alan Abraham, public spirited architect and designer, said that though pedestrians constituted a vast majority, the expenditure on footpaths and other amenities per person was extremely low. It needs to be sharply increased. The design of buildings and footpaths was very faulty with the result walking had become very hazardous.
A huge amount was being spent by the municipal corporation on the coastal road which will be used by comparatively very few people, motorists. It will be very difficult to recover the cost even if the toll was charged.
Ashok Datar said a toll must be levied on motorists using the coastal road. There was also need to increase taxes on cars . Strangely, buses were being charged five times more tax than cars. He was also highly critical of the car parking authority created by the municipal corporation. Crores were spent including Rs. 2 crore on staff salaries in the last five years without delivering any result. Many young architects including those trained abroad were hired. Nothing has been delivered so far.
The proposal to sell the land of BEST bus depots was strongly opposed by Ajit Shenoy and others. The commercial redevelopment of some depots had robbed the city of public space and money. Builders had failed to pay their dues of crores of rupees.
Chetan Bordawekar, activist, said shockingly parking for cars was free even on prime roads including P.M. road near Hutatma Chowk. There was a strong case for high parking fees.
Experts pointed out that the policies of the authorities are increasing congestion and pollution, not reducing them. Traffic jams are now occurring even in lanes and bylanes which did not happen earlier. And things are going to be much worse.
The reason is that the authorities are using a completely wrong American car-dominated anti public transport model rather than the European one regarding transport and traffic. American thinking on various issues is faulty.Steven Nadler, professor of philosophy, has said so many obviously intelligent and well-educated Americans claim that global warming is a “hoax”; when we seem obsessed with vilifying an entire, fourteen centuries-old religious tradition simply because of recent heinous actions of terrorists who profess to act in its name; when, nearly a century after the Scopes Trial, there is still significant public resistance to the theory of evolution, with one recent poll revealing that 34% of the population rejects evolution — over one third of the country! — and when voters elect a man so obviously unprepared and unfit to be president, I begin seriously to worry that we Americans are exhibiting greater and greater stupidity, the professor said ( as quoted in Time magazine)
Vidyadha Date is a senior journalist and author of a book seeking priority for public transport
