Is Urban Rail MRTS the only option for Indian Cities

For the cover story 'Metronomics',  in the July edition of Infrastructure Today (an Indian Trade Magazine), the author asked me a few questions about my perspective as an urban planning consultant, about the plans for developing a rail based MRTS for over 20 Indian cities. The article extensively quotes my opinion, and can be access here. The following is my response to the questions posed by the author -

1. In a society that is urbanizing at a very rapid clip, what is the scope for MRTS across India?

There is tremendous scope of developing and growing Mass Rapid Transit Systems in Cities that come under the Tier I and II (more than a million population), primarily to maiximise the locational efficiencies of economic engines/employment centers. Commute times are a drag on economic output, therefore reducing travel times should be a primary goal for all sectors of city/regional governance. MRTS is one such tool that can help in that. Secondly, India in general, and urban India in particular is scarce in available land, therefore using urban land for widening existing and new roads is not most cost effective way to move people. The automobile is a very inefficient mode of transportation. It is used sparingly during commute times, and takes up two significant sized spaces (parking at home and at work) in a 24 hour cycle that could have been put to better use). Bringing MRTS to Indian cities can help free land for more productive uses.


2. Having seen the successful execution of Delhi Metro, would you consider MRTS as the best response to commuting woes in our already overcrowded urban centres?

The success of Delhi Metro is a laudable feat that is commendable. It is being used as an example for other Metro rail projects in Indian cities, wherein its success is reflected in the fact that the Delhi Metro’s consulting arm is leading many such projects in India. However, because of its success in Delhi, many believe that it is the best option available for Indian cities. That is a grave misconception, as without proper contextual understanding of city needs, city geography and economic viability of such expensive infrastructure projects, investing in a Delhi Metro type MRTS may be a huge risk. Delhi is a unique city in India, wherein a lot of development decisions and investment comes from the Central Government. Therefore, there is more at stake in Delhi Metro’s success other than just the City’s economic future. The city acts as showcase for the country, hence managing the metro, both physically and financially is of utmost interest for the Central Government. That may not be the case for other cities where the local and state government may be left to their own devices in order to maintain and upgrade such transportation infrastructure.

The decision to have an MRTS system has to be done very carefully, with a lot of technical assessments of existing and future demand, the flow of commutes within cities and from its surrounding communities. Off the commute patterns, one identifies key corridors that then have to meet a certain threshold to be a viable candidate for an MRTS system. Even then, a decision has to be made if that demand can be met with cheaper alternatives such as dedicated bus lanes or Full BRT systems. This was exactly the case in the 1970s and 80s in South American cities, which were faced with the steep costs of rail based MRTS, and opted for a BRT system that was exponentially cheaper (to build, maintain and upgrade), and met the existing and future travel demands.

In addition to the BRT alternative, one also should be considering new developments in urban transportation, such as ride aggregator systems (OLA and UBER) as well as the potential of self driving vehicles. While self-driving vehicles are probably decades away, ride aggregating systems are already making a huge paradigm shift in urban transportation in Indian cities. GPS equipped city buses and provide real time location information to commuters that can make exiting transportation systems far more reliable and efficient. With such new technologies, one has to carefully consider whether the hugely expensive investment in urban rail based MRTS will truly be the most effective investment for a particular city.


3. As an urban planner who has lived on three continents (Africa, Asia, and North America) what do you see as the likely challenges in planning and commissioning of MRTS in the urban centres of a developing economy such as India?

The following are key challenges that MRTS projects face –

• Financing Construction & Maintenance.  While financing may happen through bonds and soft loans from the Central government and international sources, maintenance is often funded by local sources. With our property and income tax bases not being very organized, the possibility of raising municipal bonds to finance upkeep, maintenance and expansion for less prominent cities will be a significant hurdle. The project proponents have be proactive in establishing future revenue and financing sources from the get go so that cities aren’t left holding the bag.
• Strong local/regional governance of MRTS Corporation. It is imperative that the governing body/board of an MRTS corporation include a majority of locally  elected representatives in order to keep the corporation in tune with local economic and social changes. As it is, in India, local urban governance (municipal corporations /mayors ) do not have much resources or authority to truly address the needs of the Indian city. While some states have divested powers to urban development authorities to urban local bodies under the 73rd/74th amendments, this has been very uneven with many northern states woefully lagging on the implementation of these amendments. Using this opportunity, urban local bodies could be given a stronger say on their cities' futures.
• Singular Transportation Agency. As is quite evident in Delhi, the urban transportation system despite the Delhi Metro leaves much to be desired. With the Delhi Metro, the State Transportation Department and the Delhi Traffic Police answering to very different bosses, coordination between modes of transportation is woefully inadequate. Such is the lack of coordination that a simple exercise of crossing the street from the Anand Vihar Railway station in Delhi, to get to the other side of the street to the Kaushambi flats in Ghaziabad, has become a Parkour like endeavor for a citizen, simply because different transportation entities could not coordinate planning and implementation of their respective projects. Most metropolitan areas in the developed and emerging economies have a singular agency to manage all aspects of public transportation, making the change of modes as seamless as it can be.
•  Integrated Land Use and Transportation Policy. In order to make public transit the travel mode of choice, cities have to work to make is spatial allocation of land uses fit, or retrofit, into the planned MRTS or public transportation system. While Delhi Metro has been operational for over 15 years, the City of Delhi has only just notified it's Transit Oriented Development policy. Indian cities can learn from these lapses in planning, and develop their own land use policy  updates as they plan out the MRTS projects, making sure that the right urban development  policies are in place when the systems become operational. 
• The facilitation of moving private vehicles. Any public transit system is doomed to fail if urban leader continue to build new, or widen existing, roads. In addition, maintaining excessive parking requirements for urban land uses further encourages citizen to drive rather than take public transit. Therefore, as MRTS systems are being planned, cities should also develop new parking regulations and public parking policies that discourage the use of private cars. Numerous studies have shown that the most significant shift of commuters from private cars to public transit, is the low availability of parking at their places of work or recreation.

4. Any perspective that you may like to add from your side.

As an urban development professional, I have often seen large urban infrastructure projects such as MRTS being part of the political strategies of politicians, who for political expediencies tout them as silver bullets for very complex and temporally dynamic problems faced by urban areas. This unfortunately propagates a single solution to fit several unique conditions that are Indian cities. Technocrats and decision makers have to do their level best to educate leaders and the general public on the specific transportation needs of the city residents and plan for the best, most sustainable MRTS (Or not) option possible for their individual cities.