Lessons learnt, time for a better-planned BRT
BUS RAPID TRANSIT SYSTEMS HAVE HAD TEETHING TROUBLES WORLD OVER. BUT THAT HAS NOT STOPPED CITIES FROM GOING INTO EXPANSION MODE
as NYC, dismantled its lone bus corridor between Ambedkar Nagar and Moolchand two years ago. Besides its unpopular design – bus stops in the middle of the road and concrete dividers – Delhi’s BRT lacked the fundamentals.
The ₹200-crore corridor did not have adequate buses or information systems. Traffic signal cycles were too long. The absence of a key feature of the BRT — passengers paying their fare before entering the station — slowed down the operations. The 5.8km corridor could not offer a full commute to the passenger who could never time their journey in the absence of timetables.
But having learnt how not to run a BRT, Delhi may perhaps take a second shot at it. At 60,000-80,000 passengers per hour, the Metro can ferry four times as many passengers a BRT can transport in one direction. But building every kilometre of Metro costs ₹550 crore for the underground and ₹250 crore for the elevated line — eight to 18 times the ₹30-35crore-per-km cost of a BRT. The cost advantage is obvious.
While the Metro is great for longer journeys, the BRT is better suited for short to medium travel distances and does not involve the hassle and additional cost of the lastmile commute. Officials say the government is working on reviving a proposal to build a corridor between Karawal Nagar and Shastri Park, with links to Bhajanpura, Mori Gate and Gandhi Nagar.
Instead of putting bus lanes in the middle of the road, the authorities now propose to build new roads, running parallel to the existing ones, exclusively for buses. They also promise better integration with Metro stations and large bus-terminuses.
By the next year, the government hopes to augment its heavily depleted bus service, not just the Cng-run ones but also 1,000 new electric units. If the new corridor is approved on time, some of these buses could be used on the BRT more efficiently. If t his works, authorities could even look to expand it in spacious sub-cities, such as Dwarka and Rohini.
World over, be it Johannesburg, Bogota, NYC, or Jakarta, BRTS have had teething troubles. But that has not stopped any of these cities from going into expansion mode. Closer home, Ahmedabad and Indore have implemented a successful BRT. As more than 10 million private vehicles choke its arteries, increasing mass transit options is no more a choice but a compulsion in Delhi.