Mumbai: There is an estimate of a 1.3 lakh bus deficit in urban areas throughout the country and there is a need to quickly improve the bus system, especially the electricity supply of BrihanMumbai and transportation (best) in Mumbai.
This is part of an online workshop session about public-private partnerships (PPP) to improve city bus services on Wednesday.
This workshop is part of a sustainable global series titled ‘Connect Karo 2021’ organized by the World Resources Institute, India which has more than 150 speakers for various sessions.
Senior IAS officers and the best former General Manager of Surendrakumar Bagde, one of the speakers, said while in several cities public transport was stopped completely during the Covid-19 pandemic, in Mumbai, the bus was never stopped.
“For bus transportation, the focus must induce efficiency in bus operations.
There is a need to raise public transportation to the benchmark level of service,” he said.
The bus is the best public transportation mode on the road because it can bring more passengers and occupy fewer street spaces.
Bagde further added, “The adoption of the PPP model along with other technologies is fundamentally to make the bus sector work as it is done in Mumbai where several buses are purchased on wet rentals.
The PPP model offers a bus body opportunity to achieve increased efficiency at lower initial costs .
Because of this, PPP will have a big impact in the future.
“Bagde, who is now an additional secretary, the Ministry of Housing and urban affairs in Delhi, notifies that the central ministry launches a scheme to support more buses.
“The funding is offered during a longer period,” he said.
In Mumbai, the best already has more than 1,200 buses on wet rent and plans to take this number to more than 4,000 in the future, mostly with central funds for electric buses.
Shashi Verma, Chief Technology Officer, transportation for London said that Metro Rail was not “only a solution” for Indian transportation requests.
“The bus doesn’t look interesting and must be encouraged.
While India has a successful model to develop capital infrastructure for roads and metro, a model of providing a successful service for public bus services missing,” he showed.
“There is a need to shift from the approach to allocate PPP contracts that state the total KM that must be resolved by a private agent.
Instead, the focus must be more on the necessary output – route operation, compliance schedule etc.
and this will enter a greater interest in commuter,” he said.
WRI India CEO O Agarwal said there was a need to change the narrative of giving “low-quality services” for those who had no choice but to use the bus.
We need to improve quality and at the same time, make the bus option also for those who use personal transportation modes such as private cars and bicycles, he said.
Other WRI officials said, “If cities have developed a bus or BRT routes throughout the country, such cities need to flood this line by bus, improve quality and encourage more citizens to use it for daily trips.”