Comparison of bus services in Indian cities

Parisar compared the performance of PMPML with bus service providers in five other Indian cities; BEST (Mumbai); MTC (Chennai); BMTC (Bangalore) and DTC (Delhi). In a previous study titled PMPML Report card, Parisar had quantified the performance of PMPML, which showed how PMPML scored low on all counts. The current study concludes that PMPML also performs considerably worse than other bus systems in Indian cities.

The comparison was based on 3 categories: Quality of Service, Operational Efficiency and Financial Performance.

Cycle Track Assessment - Report

Pune has about 132 km of cycle tracks (officially), of which really only 87 km are worthy of even being called cycle tracks. Even of these, there are missing portions, adding up to about 30 km (35%). In addition there are numerous obstacles. An unfortunate choice was also made to use interlocking blocks for the cycle track surface, making for a bumpy ride. The net result is that the cycle tracks are largely unused. This has led to a demand to remove the cycle tracks.

Since Pune's Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) sets a target of 50% modal share by Non-Motorized Transport (NMT) by 2030, there is a need to fix these cycle tracks, not get rid of them.

Parisar conducted a thorough review of the cycle tracks and developed a methodology for scoring them. They were rated on the basic of their Safety, Comfort and Continuity; essential in order for them to be usable.

The results are not surprising. Of the 20 cycle tracks reviewed, 1 is Good (Law College road), 1 is Okay (Old Canal road), 5 are Poor, 6 are Bad and 1 is Very Bad (Vishrantwadi-Airport road).

PMPML Report Card 2010-11

 

Parisar has come up with a way of quantifying the performance of PMPML, the city's transport provider, operating over 11 lakh trips daily. For the same, we have taken into account 4 parameters of service, identified as being crucial from the point of view of the commuter, namely – RELIABILITY, COMFORT, CONVENIENCE and AFFORDABILITY.The idea was to prepare a comprehensive toolkit which would combine the users’ feedback on the bus service as well as make use of official PMPML data, to give a final grade to the service provided by PMPML.

Transport Budget Analysis 2011-12

Pune has for several years allocated the largest share of its budget to the transportation sector. At around 30% of the total budget, this sector gets a larger share than important sectors like health, sanitation & slum rehabilitation together.

The country has formulated a National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP) and the city has commissioned a Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP). One would expect that allocation of money within the transportation sector would follow the principles of NUTP and attempt to achieve the goals laid down in the CMP. These documents have clearly mentioned their key focus as “mobility of people rather than vehicles” and keeping with this spirit, the main emphasis of CMP has been promoting public and non motorized transport in the city, and states that their modal shares should be 40% and 50% respectively by 2030.

Parisar analyzed the budgetary allocation on transportation sector in Pune’s 2011-12 budget. It emerges that more than 60% of the transport sector budget is allocated to projects which are motor vehicle friendly like building of new roads, flyovers, parking structures and re-tarring of roads. On the other hand, non-motorized friendly and public-transport friendly projects get only 9% and 18% respectively of the budget allocation in spite of including doubtful projects such as subways, skywalks, BRT (as currently implemented) and Metro (as currently planned). This clearly suggests that the city has not paid any attention to the guidelines of NUTP or the goals set by CMP while preparing its budget.