Will BRTS solve city's public transport woes?

May 12th, 2008 | posted by Anjali

NAGPUR: Even though the population of

Nagpur has crossed 35 lakh the city is yet to have a decent public transport system. The city bus service, which was never

upto the mark, has become worse due to differences between Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) and Nagpur

Municipal Corporation's (NMC's) private bus operator.

MSRTC had been repeatedly asking NMC to take over the

city bus service as it was running in heavy loss.

However, when NMC finally took over MSRTC officials created

all possible hurdles in way of the private operator. The operator also did not fulfill the terms and conditions of the

contract and NMC administration has recommended termination of the contract. Meanwhile, MSRTC has decided to ply more city

buses.

An elevated or underground railway is planned from Kamptee to Mihan. However, there will sufficient

traffic for this mass rapid trans-port system (MRTS) only if Mihan takes off, an NMC officer said. In the mid-nineties, the

civic administration had planned to develop a ring railway in the city. However, the proposal was finally scrapped when

central government committee found out that it would not be viable.

Transport experts of JNNURM had made it

clear that MRTS was not viable for cities like Nagpur. Bus rapid transport system (BRTS) would be a better and viable

option.

Vijay Deshmukh, a retired bureaucrat, said that when the city administration cannot manage the city bus

service, it will be too much to expect it manage BRTS. "It is a complicated system where a lane is dedicated solely for buses

so that they can ply at high speed. The recent chaos in Delhi shows that BRTS is very difficult to

manage."

Source:

Vidarbha