Flawed transport system exposes absence of metro authority

One of the big problems associated with this is an elusive metropolitan region development authority—a PMRDA, along the lines of an MMRDA. A search that began almost three decades ago and still continues. “The PMRDA must be formed, otherwise the city is doomed. It is mandatory as per the Constitution for integrated transportation and water linkages in the region. And it’s not all that difficult to set up,” says Ramanath Jha, Principal Secretary, Transport and Excise, Government of Maharashtra.

When The Indian Express ran a 14-part series last year reiterating the urgent need for setting up PMRDA, almost everyone paid lip service to it, admitting that the region divided between two municipal corporations and three cantonment boards needed a unifying body for better administration. Last heard, the state government was to give the final touches to a body that for reasons best known is proving to be a herculean task.

Even as PMRDA remains a non-starter the BRTS, which had a premature birth but has Rs 650 crore set aside under it for city roads makeover, is being revived.

Says T C Benjamin, Principal Secretary, state Urban Planning, “To ensure safety of pedestrians in Pune, the design criteria of the Pune BRTS need to be changed. With a decision being made to roll out BRTS in major arterial roads with an investment of Rs 650 crore, there will be a number of subways coming up at points where pedestrians have to wait more than 120 seconds to cross roads.”

The city administration is playing catch-up with burgeoning traffic and has decided that at least one-third of the existing traffic signals along the soon-to-be identified BRTS routes will get dug up to make subways. A move that is sure to throw the already chaotic traffic flow completely out of gear as the city roads are being eaten up by slums and the swelling traffic inches along apologetically along these narrowed carriageways and go into a thrombosis mode during peak hours.

On the flip side, the corporation is also planning a number of initiatives like blocking entry of heavy vehicles and intercity luxury buses into city limits during peak hours to ease bottlenecks. While such firefighting is on, there are also efforts to perpetuate the dichotomous divide between modern Pune and the ancient one.

“The biggest disappointment for me has been the continued lack of accountability for any major civic projects. Target dates come and go, new dates get painted on the boards–paint is cheap after all–and no one, the politicos or the PMC seems to care. That was one big expectation when the incompetent dispensation of yore was replaced by a new party, but the behaviour and results seem no different,” points out Partha Iyengar, Country Head (Research), Gartner India.

Not helping matters along are the inactive traffic police, quite happy slapping fines on individuals, but not so proactive when it comes to cracking down on five-seater autorickshaws that are banned from city limits, intercity luxury buses and trucks that use city roads for short-cuts and eat up considerable space on already choked city roads. And the civic administration that goes easy on slums, both old and new, on busy roads, and instead squeeze carriageway by creating parking bays on roads.

One reason for the inertia, say city watchers, is the powerful automobile lobby, who between member companies account for hundreds of cars, autorickshaws and two-wheelers that are pushed into the shrinking city roads each month. And the politicians who play patrons to slums that spring up with impudence right along arterial roads. As the authorities keep wondering who’ll bell the proverbial cat, the city keeps going from bad to worse.

What they Say

What Pune needs is a shift from the present practice to a private-public partnership. We need to follow Indore’s example where people decide which road needs to be constructed, they identify the contractor while the Corporation approves the plan and contributes 50 per cent of the cost. The rest 50 per cent is borne by the people who want the road. If Pune adopts this, roads, bridges and flyovers will get done in a hundred of places Arun Firodia, Chairman and MD, Kinetic Engineering Ltd

Time wasted in traffic jams due to poor infrastructure is a tremendous waste of productivity. In the longer term, the traffic woes will be a disincentive for people to move to Pune. For export driven companies, such poor infrastructure creates a credibility issue when foreign visitors come to Pune.

Satish Mehta, Chairman, Emcure Pharmaceuticals