Cities on the Move: Re-framing transport infrastructure through ‘mobility’ – Ahmedabad's BRTS

Cities on the Move Reframing transport infrastructure through ‘mobility’ – the case of Ahmedabads BRT

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the MSc Building and Urban Design in Development 10,406 Words 01.09.2017 Saptarshi Mitra Supervisor: Dr. Catalina Ortiz Development Planning Unit, University College London London, United Kingdom

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CONTENTS iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF TABLES

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

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INTRODUCTION

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CHAPTER I Contextualising mobility as a principle for development

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I. Transport infrastructure in development

I.i. Discourse of transport infrastructure in development

I.ii. Reframing transport infrastructure in development -

towards equity, inclusivity and justice

II. Mobility as development

II.i. Mobility in the network society

II.ii. Mobility as a social construct

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CHAPTER II

III. Mobility in transport infrastructure - bridging gaps

Framework for Analysis: Understanding distributional impacts of BRT infrastructure informed by ideas of mobility 13

CHAPTER III The Janmarg Project – Ahmedabad (2007-)

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I. About Janmarg

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II. Unpacking distributional impacts

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II.i. Representations of Janmarg

II.ii. The social construction of public and private space

II.iii. Social positions and identities – shaping distribution

CHAPTER IV CONCLUSION

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I. Discussion: distributional inequalities as a gap between

discursive intentions and material representations

II. Mobility as a principle for development

REFERENCES

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to Dr. Catalina Ortiz for her sincere interest in the work, critical comments and incisive questions. I must also say thank you to the wonderful BUDD faculty at DPU, who made the course challenging, but engaging at the same time.

This dissertation would not have been possible without Team Biryani (Gunjan, Ramya, Ruchika, and Vineetha) - you guys are truly the best! Also, a big shout-out to the turtles (Nandita, Julia, Zhiyao and Shoko) for helping create memories and friendships that will hopefully last a lifetime.

I never expected to, but ended up in the company of some amazing people. You guys transformed life in gloomy London into something that was always fun, exciting and full of happiness. Thank you, BUDDies!

A big thank you to the Amdavadi crew - Anurag, Bulbul, Mihir, Mrinal and Sahil: because of you guys I keep going back to Ahmedabad for both fun and work. And thank you Aniket and Debanjan, old friends who always manage to keep in touch.

I would also like to sincerely thank Chevening Scholarships, the UK government’s global scholarship programme, funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and partner organisations. Their support made this wonderful experience possible.

Thank you, baba, ma, dadabhai, dida - you guys are a wonderfully supportive family.

I am lucky indeed. Finally, this one is for you Amma – I am certain you would have been very proud indeed.

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LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 1: Phases of Janmarg, Source CoE UT CEPT

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- Fig.3.1 (Suzuki, et al., 2013, p. 98) Fig. 2: Ahmedabad’s image driven by a vision of a mega-city

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- from (SRFDCL, 2017) Fig. 3: Webpage of Janmarg dedicating the project to citizens of

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Ahmedabad - from (Ahmedabad Janmarg Limited, 2017) Fig. 4: BRT system cross section at Bus Station - ROW 40m

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- Reworked on Figure 8.2 (AMC, et al., 2007, pp. 8-16) Fig. 5: Displacements as a result of Janmarg alignment

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- Figure 4.18 (Mahadevia, et al., 2012, p. 83)

LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Provision of footpaths and cycle tracks along Janmarg

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- Table 4.5 (Mahadevia, et al., 2012, p. 80) Table 2: Income profile and Sex Ratio of BRT users, Ahmedabad

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- Table 3 (Mahadevia, et al., 2013, p. 60) Table 3: Age profile of BRT users, Ahmedabad

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- Table 5.2 (Mahadevia, et al., 2012, p. 88) Table 4: Employment Profile of BRT Users by Sex, Ahmedabad

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- Table 4 (Mahadevia, et al., 2013, p. 60) Table 5: Average Trip Length (km) and Percentage of Income - Table 10 (Mahadevia, et al., 2013, p. 62)

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AJL AMC

Ahmedabad Janmarg Limited Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation

AMTS

Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Services

AUDA

Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority

BJP

Bharatiya Janata Party

BRT

Bus Rapid Transit

CEPT

Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology

DPR

Detailed Project Report

EWS

Economically Weaker Sections

FAR

Floor Area Ratio

HIG

High Income Group

JNNURM

Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission

LIG

Low Income Group

LRT

Light Rail Transit

MIG

Middle Income Group

NGO

Non-Governmental Organisation

NMT

Non-Motorised Transport

NUTP PMT PPP

National Urban Transport Policy Private Motorised Transport Public Private Partnership

ROW

Right of Way

Rs

Indian Rupee

RTC SEWA TOZ ULCA

Right to the City Self-Employed Women’s Workers Union Transit Oriented Zone Urban Land Ceiling Act

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Cities on the move

Reframing transport infrastructure through ‘mobility’

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INTRODUCTION

In a networked society organised around a system of flows, social, spatial and political processes have become increasingly mobile. Urban trajectories, and society become fluid concepts, shaped and reshaped while continuously ‘in motion’. In this context, transport infrastructures become the most direct, real and tangible tool to spearhead growth, and the discourse of transport infrastructure becomes a symbolic representation of the discourse of development. The logical basis driving such projects can be ascribed to a neo-liberal market driven approach, pushing ideas of accessibility and mobility as paths to growth. An investigation of the discourse of such projects also reveal ideas of equity, inclusivity and social justice, embedded and propagated through the rhetoric of equal benefits for all. This leads to a gap between the discursive intentions of transport infrastructure projects and their materialisation in the city- necessitating the need to reframe our understanding of transport infrastructure. It is imperative to look at other epistemes of transport and mobilities research to shape such an understanding.

This dissertation seeks to investigate this gap between discursive intentions and materialisations of transport infrastructure projects. It will do so by studying the distributional effects of material and discursive practices of

Janmarg - Ahmedabads Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system and understand its relations to distributional impacts in the city. It seeks to understand how disjunctions between discursive practices and material practices determine conditions of mobility and immobility (physical, social and political) in the city, how dominant power groups shapes this disjunction and how a discursive shift can alter urban development trajectories.

Issues of rapid urbanisation, increasing motorisation and congestion are common in Indian cities. They are also symptomatic of examples of development led by large-scale transport infrastructure projects, specifically BRT projects. Ahmedabad is one of the fastest growing cities in the country attracting a substantial amount of investment. It is rapidly expanding in terms of population, geography and extensive transportation development. Janmarg is the largest operational BRT network in the country, receiving several national and international accolades as a model of equitable, efficient and sustainable public transport system. This makes it an appropriate case for investigation.

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A framework of deep distribution informed by ideas of mobility has been developed to facilitate this investigation. Through this investigation, the study shows that in

Janmarg’s representation, the discourse of equity has been co-opted by an alternative discourse where development is equated to increased growth and investments. This becomes visible in an analysis of its material practices. The distributional landscape of Janmarg thus becomes one of inequality where benefits (social, economic and political) to dominant power groups makes them increasingly more mobile, while concurrently making the urban poor increasingly immobile. The work argues that

Mobility can serve as a principle to operationalise a collective rights-based discourse, which is already embedded in national level policies. This can be incorporated into the conceptualisation, design and implementation of transport infrastructure projects.

Herein lies its potential to catalyse processes of inclusive urban development in cities today.

The work is structured in four parts. The first part discusses the gaps between the existing discourse and materialisations of transport infrastructure projects, and subsequently elaborates on the role of mobility in addressing this gap. The second part suggests a framework of analysis based on concepts of deep distribution (Levy, 2013) and social dimensions of mobility. The third part analyses the Janmarg project to unpack and understand its distributional impact. The work concludes with a reflection on what these inequalities mean for the city, and how mobility as a principle can bridge the gap between discourse and materialisation of infrastructure projects to drive equitable trajectories of development. It discusses the necessity and the relevance of a discursive shift in the way development is understood – from

transport as development to mobility as development.

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CHAPTER I Contextualising mobility as a principle for development

I. Transport infrastructure in development The “modernization of transport infrastructure is seen as a critical driver in making cities globally competitive in the image of the world class city” - (Levy, 2013, p. 52)

“The solutions offered by transport policies and public–private partnerships posit methods of transit that purport to be universally accessible, […] yet are out of the reach of the majority...”

- (Murthy, 2011, p. 122)

I.i. Discourse of transport infrastructure in development According to Harvey (2008), present-day urban trajectories of cities can be explained through the logic of neo-liberal urbanization characterized by an overwhelming market driven restructuring led by the interests of a dominant group of actors. To be part of the global circuit of organised economic networks, cities need to increasingly become more accessible, more mobile. This obliges them to “carry out substantial investments in transport infrastructure and virtual connectivity” (Brand, 2013, p.

17). Transportation, land-use and consequently urban mobility thus become key challenges to public administration (Mercier, 2009; Murthy, 2011).

This is evident as most governments are heavily committed to transport infrastructure projects as tools for development. These projects have become the “paradigmatic material infrastructure of the twenty-first century, supporting both the information society […] and the extractive economies of developing nations” (Dalakoglou & Harvey, 2012, p. 459). Essebo & Baeten have elaborated on how, through processes of enchantments and myths these projects craft a particular discourse, – that “growth is a positive, necessary and never-ending path to prosperity” (2012, p. 509) and transport infrastructures are the most direct, real and tangible tool to spearhead growth. Consequently, the discourse of transport infrastructure becomes a symbolic representation of the discourse of development itself.

Building on the ideas of Foucault, Flvyberg (1998) attributes the proess of crafting and representing a particular discourse as an assertion of power, domination and control by dominant actor groups in society. Transport Infrastructures then can be thought of as manifestations of enacted power, and are hence political. In their representations these projects further political agendas and help articulate political relations. These representations can inspire and galvanise material transformations of cities through large-scale complex processes involving multiple actors, and various interests.

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This discourse makes an implicit assumption that the benefits of a transport infrastructure project are equally distributed across all sections of society. The core idea behind this assumption is that through these projects “life will change for the better” (Harvey & Knox, 2012, p. 534). However, in its materialisation, this betterment of life as conceived and represented in the discourse is not uniform across society but often is the betterment of a select dominant group. Despite the discourse being one of inclusion, representation and social justice, in reality such projects entrench existing distributional inequalities in cities, and create new forms of inequalities. Hence, there exists a paradox where, despite the increased transport related accessibility and mobility in cities today its social structures and hierarchies remain stable (Brand, 2013).

The gap between the discursive intentions of transport infrastructure projects and their materialisation in the city necessitates the need to reframe our understanding of transport infrastructure. It is imperative to look at other epistemes of transport and mobilities research to shape a better understanding.

I.ii. Reframing transport infrastructure in development - towards equity, inclusivity and justice

According to Leinbach (2000), a simplistic view of the connection between transport and development detracts from a deeper understanding of the real implications of such projects and their relations to power and politics in shaping urban trajectories.

The social turn in transport research provides an entry point to such an understanding.

In a departure from the premise of the neo-liberal discourse where economic growth is the only parameter for development, this research strongly propounds that the city imagination cannot be detached from its social links (Ohnmacht, et al., 2009; Ernste, et al., 2012; Jones & Lucas, 2012; Easterling, 2014; Hernandez & Dávila, 2016). Sociologists like Tonkiss (2013) also argue that “modern cities are not merely by-products of the operation of capital, […] Cities are the sites of intense struggles between disparate interests and multiple stakeholders, whose ideas, influences and actions together ultimately shape today’s urban realities” (see Tonkiss, 2013, p. 24).

Consequently, development of the city can no longer be unilaterally determined by market forces, economics and efficiency, but should also encapsulate the ability of people to live in cities, be a part of cities and move within cities.

The dissertation attempts to reframe transport in development through a rightsbased approach by foregrounding collective rights to the city (RTC). Lefebvre’s (1991) concept of the RTC is “far more than the individual liberty to access urban resources: it is a right to change ourselves by changing the city” (Harvey, 2008, p. 23). Being a collective rather than an individual right, there needs to be an exercise of collective power for the RTC to manifest. This exercise of power has been increasingly made difficult in the current transport infrastructure projects as power and interests are localised in the hands of a few.

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Incorporating mobility as a principle in transport infrastructure projects can help manifest this collective power and operationalise an RTC discourse within the development discourse. Mobility itself must be viewed as “not static and uniform in character, meaning and consequences” (Brand, 2013, p. 20), but an overarching principle through which the existing distributional inequalities in society can be addressed and development can be made more equitable. This understanding of mobility as the ability of people and ideas to move can reframe the discourse and subsequent materialisation of transport infrastructure projects, and hence reframe the discourse of development itself. Thus, these projects can embody a potential to begin reconfiguring urban trajectories from a deeply structural level and positively affect rights to access, appropriate and participate in the city (Levy, 2013).

The next section elaborates on how mobility plays a vital role in the network society in structuring urban trajectories and experiences. It then discusses how an expanded socially imbued understanding of mobility can be used as an entry point to bridge the gap between social and transport research.

II. Mobility as development II.i. Mobility in the network society

Substantial research has been carried out on how links between surplus production and distribution, i.e. links between labour and market are the core structuring principles of cities today. These links are global circuits of movement of people, commodities, finances, knowledge and information (Castells, 2009; Harvey, 2008; Easterling, 2014). This means that society can be thought of as a global network where cities are continuously in competition with each other at the global scale – guided by global flows. Flows are “sequences of exchange and interaction between […] social actors in the economic, political, and symbolic structures of society” (2009, p. 442). These actors are asymmetrically organised and hence the flow is not neutral but a manifestation of power of dominant actors organised around particular interests. Flvyberg argues that power reflects “what kind of interpretation attains authority as the dominant interpretation” (1998, p. 319). Thus, dominant actors in the network society can direct flows and structure social and spatial trajectories of the city, hence controlling the mobility of other social groups.

Flows thus guide the spatial logic of the city in a network society, and mobility becomes a core structuring principle. This necessitates a paradigm shift from seeing society as a bounded static system to one that is topological, where development processes are increasingly structured through networked infrastructure projects. Easterling (2014) elaborates on how such globally conceived but locally implemented networks (transport, communications, utilities and also information, ideas, knowledges) like the Smart Cities programmes, transport infrastructure projects, transnational development organisations, production standards, publishing standards have become the vehicle for development today.

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Cities on the move

Transport infrastructure projects (as a type of networked infrastructure) are leading processes of development in cities of the global south – with a discourse of increased accessibility and mobility as paths to growth. However, to understand the distributional impacts of these projects and the gap between their discursive intentions and materialisation, it is imperative to investigate what being mobile means, and its topological links as part of a larger network within this space of flows.

There needs to be a shift in the conceptual understanding of transport infrastructure projects from being connectors between centres of production and consumption to being agents of social and spatial transformation. This demands an in-depth investigation of mobility and its social implications.

II.ii. Mobility as a social construct

The conditions of a modern life equate the idea of mobility to that of freedom (to trade, work, travel, etc.) - the freedom of people, things and ideas to navigate and hence structure society itself (Dalakoglou & Harvey, 2012). Places and spaces are increasingly connected through networks of mobilities that transcend geographical delineations (Sheller & Urry, 2006) and become “routes that connect sites” (Cresswell, 2010, p. 551).

Mobility is always located in space, and is materialised through spatial reconfigurations (Sheller, 2004). These reconfigurations create “distinct social spaces that orchestrate new forms of social life” (Sheller & Urry, 2006, p. 213) and propagate patterns of movement in the city. However, the idea of mobility is not restricted only to physical movement. In fact, mobility is “about meaning as much as it is about mappable and calculable movement” (Cresswell, 2010, p. 552). Meaning here is experiential. It is the way one makes sense of the city and one’s own place in the city. The ability to move is not equal for every citizen in the city, and is dependent on relations of power - differentially distributed as per the actor’s social identity and networks. This relationship between mobility and power is dialectic – power produces mobilities and in turn mobilities constitute power (Cresswell, 2012). Present forms of mobility affect future forms of mobilities, which makes it a tool for assertion, manifestation and further propagation of power. Mobility is hence political. This politics of mobility affects the way people, and ideas move together in the city and how they simultaneously hinder/stop other people, and ideas from moving (Adey, 2009; Cresswell, 2012; Harvey & Knox, 2012).

Mobility is its expanded sense thus is located and materialised through spatial reconfigurations, embodies meaning, and is political. In the situation where a group of people, and ideas are mobile and consequently some other groups are rendered

immobile - there is a social reconfiguration of power, rationale and agency and finally a reconfiguration of space itself. Mobility hence potentially has the capacity to alter both the topography and the topology of a place (Creswell, 2012; 2014).

This understanding of mobility is a departure from traditional social science research that has been typically a-mobile, with travel being value neutral and explainable by other processes. Mobility from this perspective expands on social theories like Heidegger’s (2002) concept of dwelling – to stay, live and dwell in a place as the

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way for humans to inhabit the earth and place as the basic unit of social research.

There is a similar theoretical shift when looking at roads from this perspective – from anti-social and alienating non-places lacking in social significance (Augé, 1995) to socially produced interfaces, consolidating boundaries and having the possibility of reconfiguring relations (Sheller & Urry, 2006).

This socially grounded, but spatially manifest understanding of mobility can help conceptualise a more holistic framework for understanding transport infrastructure projects, as elaborated below.

III. Mobility in transport infrastructure - bridging gaps Transport research has deeply investigated the economic and environmental dimensions of transport (Seskin, 1990; Skaer,1999; Jones and Lucas, 2012). It has developed ways of telling us about facts of movement. The focus of such transport research is on accessibility, understood as “the place’s connectedness to means of transport and the place’s attractiveness in terms of opportunities that can be realised there” (Ohnmacht, et al., 2009, p. 16). An examination of traditional transport research based on accessibility reveals certain issues. In some cases, a discourse for universal accessibility does not hold true for all groups in manifested material practices. This might be due to several factors that restrict accessibility. They are physical (like severance, splintering, etc.) or social (intersecting identities, social positions, etc.)

(Preston, 2009; Hernandez & Dávila, 2016) What is unaccounted for in transport research is that physical infrastructures are continuously engaged with social and political infrastructures in the city – shaping and getting shaped by each other. This means that infrastructures have agency – they are active forms (Easterling, 2014) capable of shaping the city – socially, spatially and politically.

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According to Cresswell (2010), movement, representation and practice together create a politics of mobility – a framework of unequal distribution of power, experience and agency in the city. Levy calls this deep distribution – “articulation of power relations in public and private space at the level of the household, community and society that generate the structural inequality and dominant relations under which decisions about ‘travel choice’ are negotiated and made” (2013, p. 52). This means that the distributional effects of transport infrastructure projects are differential depending on an interplay of social, spatial, economic and political factors. An investigation of these distributional effects necessitates a recalibration of transport research - from that of impact analysis to an understanding of mobility and associated conditions of immobility for the various actors involved. In the context of a networked society organised around flows, mobility helps incorporate qualitative methodologies into transport research and act as an entry point to such a recalibration.

This is a departure from older research on transport geography. While transport geography’s focus is on the economics and efficiency of transport, the mobilities approach entails a shift of focus to its social experience (Cresswell, 2010). The focus of this departure is not the creation of a completely different epistemological strand of thought, but an opportunity to strengthen existing trajectories of research (Levy, 2013; Mahadevia, et al., 2013; Oommen & Sequeira, 2016). Acknowledging social conditions for poverty, inequality and vulnerability creates a possibility of what Ernst, et al. term as a bridging of the divide between mobility and transport. This is anchored in a transformed notion of mobility, from being “a way to overcome the friction of distance and a functionalist force and (re)structuring the urban landscape …[to]… approaching mobility as a transformative power opposing the fixity and boundedness of space and place” (2012, p. 509). This understanding of mobility encompasses movement, speed, cost but also energy consumption, environment and social equity (Ernste, et al., 2012) – and hence is multi-dimensional. Through this bridging, one can begin to understand how patterns of mobility or immobility are shaped by transport infrastructure projects, who shapes them and how they shape them. This can lead to an understanding of what it means to be able or to not able to move in the city – physically, socially and politically.

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CHAPTER II Framework for Analysis: Understanding distributional impacts of BRT infrastructure informed by ideas of mobility

It has been previously discussed how transport infrastructure projects become tools to operationalise the discourse of development. It has also been discussed that there exists a gap between the discursive intentions and materialisations of such projects, which results in inequalities in cities. Therefore, it becomes imperative to study their distributional impacts from a deeper structural level.

Through a study of Janmarg – Ahmedabad’s BRT system, the dissertation attempts to analyse the gap between discursive intentions and materialisations in order to determine its distributional impacts on the city.

BRT is a transport infrastructure project that promotes public mass-transit systems in cities. It is flexible and economical to build, operate and maintain compared to other forms of public mass transit like the Light Rail Transit (LRT) systems. Conceived as networks that get integrated with other forms of public, private and non-motorised transport in the city, it merges the “speed and reliability of a rail service with the operating flexibility and lower cost of a conventional bus service” (Deng & Nelson, 2011, p. 70). Dedicated road lanes and stations, high quality buses, high frequency and high-speed service and integration of information technology infrastructure (like automated fare collection, geo-location, etc.) are some salient features of a BRT system (Tiwari & Jain, 2010; Suzuki, et al., 2013). India has actively adopted BRT systems as part of its development policy, and since 2005, 12 cities in India have undertaken BRT projects (Mahadevia, et al., 2013). Janmarg is India’s largest running BRT network, which makes it a relevant case to examine for distributional impact.

To understand distributional impacts it is necessary to reframe transport research to incorporate both quantitative and qualitative factors – and shift from impact analysis to an analysis of physical, social and political mobility. Levy’s (2013) concept of deep distribution enriched by an understanding of mobility as political (Cresswell, 2010) – leads to the framework for analysis. The framework suggests that distributional impacts of Janmarg can be understood to be an interplay of power relations and vested interests of the actors involved in shaping the representations of the project and its resultant spatial materialisations in the city. Together, these interact with the differential social positions and multiple identities of Janmarg’s users to shape distributions – and manifest as the real extent of mobility for an actor in the city as a result of the BRT project.

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Consequently, the framework of analysis becomes an interplay of three factors:

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Representations of transport

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Social constructions of public and private space

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Social positions and identities – shaping distribution (based on Levy, 2013)

The dissertation attempts to study these three factors through the discursive and material practices of Janmarg, and the resultant everyday experiences of its users. The objective of these parameters is to reveal the hidden interplay of power and interactions that underlie processes of conceptualisation, implementation and distribution of these projects. Mcluhan & Flore (1967) elaborate on the idea of practices as embodying meaning through the phrase – the medium

is the message. Easterling (2014) expands on this, by saying that the real meaning is not just what the medium is saying (discursive practices), but also what the medium is doing (material and spatial practices). Furthermore, discursive and material practices are not separate but work together to produce a particular form of knowledge that “bridges a symbolic‐material distinction and signals the always political nature of the real” (Bacchi & Bonham, 2014, p. 173). In other words, a study of material and discursive practices can unpack relations of power and its operation – and its manifestations in shaping the reality of a particular context.

The representations of transport This section discuss the discourses of the Janmarg project – as portrayed in political rhetoric, media representations, detailed project reports, etc. It also analyses key policy developments to situate this project within a wider discourse of development.

This can unpack rationalisations made by the project and consequently make visible the underlying circuits of power, as “defining reality by defining rationality is a principal means by which power exerts itself” (Flvyberg, 1998, p. 320). Power is the ability of actors/ a group of actors to be able to define a rationality of their own choosing and to be able to manifest this into reality. The objective of unpacking various rationalisations crafted and perpetuated through Janmarg’s representations is to uncover hidden intentions of actors as different from their stated intentions.

The social construction of public and private space This section analyses the material and spatial reconfigurations that result from

Janmarg in the city. The objective is to investigate the role of the infrastructure as an active agent transforming the space of the city, and altering the balance between its public and the private spaces. This is important as “it is in the public sphere that we find social equity and social justice, and its shrinking reduces the chances that we meet on equal footing” (Mercier, 2009, p. 151). This is done through a twofold investigation into Janmarg. The first part looks at the material configurations of the project itself - reconfigurations of streets, parking spaces and open spaces.

The second part investigates its indirect impacts on the patterns of development, displacement and redevelopment in the city.

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Social positions and identities – shaping distribution This section analyses who and what moves in the city and who and what does not or cannot. The objective of this analysis is to make visible distributional inequalities in Janmarg as an interplay of the material and discursive practice shaping the project and actors’ intersectional social positions, identities and the dynamics of power between them. Accessibility here becomes a measure of potential, and hence is dependent on social positions and identities. Travel choice is also not neutral as individual decision-making becomes socially dependant (Levy, 2013). Real travel choice, who moves through the city, how they move and where they go; is a result of these inequalities and is a measure of their real everyday experience of being mobile in the city. This analysis is carried out through a statistical comparison of trip numbers, travel modes, income and expenditures, etc. by different socio-economic groups in the city.

The framework of distribution informed by mobility uncovers “a complex entanglement of particular patterns and materiality of movement, its representation and its practice” (Oommen & Sequeira, 2016, p. 8). This can help unpack the undisclosed, subliminal intents of the project that are usually absent in the represented discourse of a project and usually “differ from its declared intent” (Easterling, 2014, p. 72). These subliminal intents are usually pushed by a dominant powerful group of actors and can manifest into a particular set of activities and relationships. These activities direct urban routines in very specific ways – and become dominant urban trajectories.

The aim of the study is to use inputs from different disciplines to get a broader perspective of the project. This also defines its scope. A limitation of such a study is that secondary resources may not fully reveal the thoughts, experiences and actions of actors involved. Tracing of power relations and intent from secondary sources is especially difficult, and it’s easy to get influenced by dominant discourses. Any research of phenomena that are dynamic, socially constructed and evolving – like how mobility is conceptualised in this work adds another layer of complexity.

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CHAPTER III The Janmarg Project – Ahmedabad (2007-) The dissertation refers to various evaluations and DPR’s of Janmarg (AMC, et al., 2007; AMC & CEPT, 2008; 2007; Rizvi, 2013). It attempts to build on and link the work of previous scholars who have studied Janmarg and its links to rights (Murthy, 2011), policy (Pai & Hidalgo, 2009), politics and development (Desai, 2008), land use (Suzuki, et al., 2013; Joshi, et al., 2017), social exclusion (Khanna, 2009; Mahadevia, et al., 2012), sustainability (Mahadevia, et al., 2013) and urban poverty (Joshi, 2014). This is done by using an expanded framework for analysing distributional impacts by incorporating notions of social mobility into transport research to make visible distributional inequalities and social exclusion in the experience of the project because of the gap between material and discursive practices of Janmarg.

I. About Janmarg Ahmedabad city, with a population of 6.35 million in 2011, is the second largest urban agglomeration area, and the fifth largest municipal area in India (Mahadevia, et al., 2013). It is widely dispersed with an evenly low-density built-form. It is divided into two distinct geographic parts by the river Sabarmati. The medieval walled city, markets, industrial estates and abandoned textile mills are located in the east. In contrast, the western part is relatively modern – consisting universities, public institutions, service industries, housing developments and shopping arcades. The city is also spatially segregated along socio-economic demographics, with high density low-income groups (EWS, LIG) concentrated in the east and higher income group residents (MIG, HIG) distributed in the west (Suzuki, et al., 2013; Joshi, 2014). The city is under intense pressure of growth and urbanisation, and this has resulted in an explosive growth of motorisation and congestion, with private vehicle ownership witnessing an increase of 9% to 10% per year (Suzuki, et al., 2013). This necessitates an urgent provision of new forms of transport infrastructure to address existing issues and shape the future growth of the city.

A set of policies in the 2000’s enabled the rapid adoption of BRT projects as dominant types of transport infrastructure projects in India. The first is the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) that is a national level policy adopted in 2005 that enables mechanisms of funding and approval for large scale transport infrastructure projects in cities. The second is the National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP), adopted by the central government in 2006. Ahmedabad was quick to capitalise on these two policies and submitted a DPR for a BRT project in the city.

The project was approved in 2006 (AMC, et al., 2007; Pai & Hidalgo, 2009; Rizvi, 2013; Joshi, 2014). Under the norms of JNNURM, 30% contribution for the project came from the Government of India, another 20% from the state government, and another 20% from the city government - the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) (Mahadevia, et al., 2013).

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Fig.1

Cities on the move

Phases of Janmarg, Source CoE UT CEPT 2012

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Known as Janmarg – or people’s way, Ahmedabad’s BRT project began operations in 2009. The sanctioned length of the project is 88.8 km, divided in two phases. The first phase is 58.3 km and the second 30.5 km. Phase III plans to add another 40.2 kilometres to the network, and there is scope for future improvements. Its present operational routes pass through the city’s densest areas and serve both the eastern and western sides of Ahmedabad (Fig.1) (Mahadevia, et al., 2013).

Janmarg operated as a closed loop system, that is buses operated on dedicated lanes. The route was designed as a network that relates to the city and not just to major arterial roads. It aimed to induce modal shifts from private motorised transport (PMT) to public transport and increase the mobility of the urban poor in Ahmedabad. As of 2011 it carries “0.15-0.18 million passengers per day, with a daily revenue of Rs 7.5-9 lakh” (see Mahadevia, et al., 2013, p. 58). The project has received several accolades and is considered one of the most successful mass transit systems in the country1.

The following section analyses Janmarg distributional impacts through its discursive and material practices and resultant exclusions.

II. Unpacking distributional impacts II.i. Representations of Janmarg Rizvi (2013) attributes the swift implementation2 of the Janmarg project to an alignment of local, state and national commitments and the ability to work closely with the private sector. The key players involved in the planning, design and implementation of Janmarg included key state institutions and universities, such as state government departments, the Gujarat Infrastructure Development Board, AMC, the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA) and the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology University (CEPT). The project operations are managed by the Ahmedabad Janmarg Limited (AJL), a special purpose vehicle created and owned by AMC. The project is run through the PPP mode, with bus operations, services, automated systems, and maintenance being outsourced to the private sector (Kost, 2010; Suzuki, et al., 2013). Hence the BRT has been a multisectoral initiative, involving both public and private sector actors, all of whom have their own discourses.

At the national level, push for urban reforms in Indian cities comes from the national government’s JNNURM programme. Initiated in 2005, the programme gives financial 1

Janmarg BRT is the recipient of the ITDP 2010 ‘Sustainable Transport Award’ and the 2009 ‘Best Mass Rapid Transit System’ award. (Rizvi, 2013)

2

The BRT was opened in 2009, only 3 years after it received first approval (in 2006 for Phase I)

16

Fig.2

Cities on the move

Ahmedabad’s image driven by a vision of a mega-city

grants to local governments for urban development. It has two focus areas, i) Urban Infrastructure and Governance and ii) Basic Services to the Urban Poor (Zérah, et al., 2011). In 2006, the national government adopted the NUTP. Its focused on integrated urban transport and land-use planning to address the needs of the poor in the city.

Together, the JNNURM and NUTP “bring equity into a discourse largely dominated by the demands of private motorised transport” (Murthy, 2011, p. 124) through public transport projects in general, and BRT projects in particular. Despite this discourse, these two policies have been criticised for uneven budget distribution3 and entrenching forms of inequality.

At the scale of the city state, Janmarg’s discourse can alternatively be seen to push the idea of a mega-city – and is rooted in an image of grand infrastructure driven city growth and development. In a topologically organised society, political and economic elites hold the power to rework discourses and create rationalities that serve their own interests and desires, and perpetrate such rationalisations as the city’s dominant urban trajectory. The project’s discourse thus “opened a window for the city’s political and economic elites to articulate a discourse of mega-city dreams” (Desai, 2008, p. 100) by recalibrating the equity discourse. This re-articulation largely draws upon neo-liberal ideologies and portrays the image of a post-industrial city with skyscrapers, malls, efficient transport systems - a site of unlimited investment opportunities (Fig.2). This image influences a particular desire and privileges a particular kind of urban development – a trajectory that is not guided by the logic of equity but one that is guided by a desire amongst the powerful actors in the city to articulate flows of public and private capital for their own interests. These interests manifest within the dominant discursive and material practices as subliminal narratives.

By virtue of their participation and role in Janmarg, actors attain a position of power and are able to rework the discourse of equity to suit their own interest – by creating and propagating rationalisations. These rationalisations manifest in the

representations of the project and are discussed below from the perspectives of the discourse of Janmarg, its branding and representation in media, and its co-option as a tool to further political agendas.

3

In spite of NUTP, road widening and flyover construction have been predominantly adopted in Indian cities. Under JNNURM 13.3% allocation of total funds was for road wid ening and flyover building and only 8.66% for mass transit projects (Joshi, 2014).

Reframing transport infrastructure through ‘mobility’

17

The discourse of Janmarg

Janmarg is described as a project “for one and all. It is about connecting people and ensuring progress. It is also about creating an identity for public transport in Ahmedabad and a sense of pride in the citizens. Janmarg is an image that will define the ethos of Ahmedabad as a city that is ready to accept change, a city that has a vision for the future, a city that will transform the image of public transport in India” - (AMC, 2012, p. 1).

A reading of the AMC-CEPT DPR of Phase-I (2007) and Phase-II (2008) of the project reveals a strong commitment to creating a network and not a corridor, an approach that would help realise the project in the context of the city and not just some arterial roads (Mahadevia, et al., 2013). The route was selected following ideas of maximum reach, by connecting “busy places but avoiding busy roads” (Joshi, 2014, p. 126) as a ploy to minimise resistance from private vehicle users. Integration of the BRT system with other modes of transit was another particularly important consideration in planning and design (Tiwari & Jain, 2010; Rizvi, 2013). There was an expectation for continuous roadside bicycle and walking tracks and on-site parking facilities, provisions for other informal services and feeder systems all being integrated into the design of the corridors (Mahadevia, et al., 2013). This is also important as integration to other forms of transport is a strong defining characteristic of a BRT system (Hernandez & Dávila, 2016). Finally, there is a commitment to support

equitable distribution of road space amongst users. In fact, one of key focus of Janmarg was the promotion of the ideas of sustainability and affordable mobility.

The overall conceptualisation of the project is that of a strategic intervention, aimed to improve the image of public transport, increase demand, improve transit options. It also aimed to better the environmental quality of the city by improving mobility options for a large segment of the population and integrating it with the overall existing transit network. Despite this discourse, Janmarg has been shown to in fact aggravate inequalities in the city (Khanna, 2009; Mahadevia, et al., 2012; Joshi, 2014) in the materialisation of the project. This is because the materialisation of the project follows a completely different logic of development. In fact, the cooption of this equity based discourse is used to legitimise such material practices, as elaborated below.

Branding and representations of Janmarg – a politically motivated vision of Ahmedabad

“Through branding, the Ahmedabad BRT will be presented as an ultra-modern, sleek, comfortable and secure mode of public transport. It will be marketed as a transport system of the future. (T)he branding will also reach out to the old and handicapped, women and children, for whom public transport, very often, is the only means of transport” - (AMC & CEPT, 2008, pp. 9-36,37).

Janmarg has adopted a conscious branding and social marketing strategy, especially amongst the vocal, economically endowed and politically active middle and higher

18

Fig.3

Cities on the move

Webpage of Janmarg dedicating the project to citizens of Ahmedabad by Chief Minister Narendra Modi

classes of the city who own and use private vehicles to commute. It is one of the most publicised4 projects in the country. At the same time, it incorporates equity into its representation, and proclaims that the project would have equal benefits to all citizens. As a result, a favourable image of the system is created in the city, the state, the country and even internationally (Mahadevia, et al., 2013). Importantly, the project has worked towards creating a glamourous image like the Delhi Metro project (Oommen & Sequeira, 2016). It has been successfully linked to usability and increased mobility during festivals and national holidays.

Janmarg’s representation can be seen to be one avenue through which the state could legitimise their market driven development practices, by creating the possibility for the elites of Ahmedabad’s society to conceive and implement “privatised public spaces in the city to which undesireable groups would have no access” (Desai, 2006, p. 7). At the same time the carefully crafted discourse couched in the rehtoric of equity helped the AMC maintain legitimacy amongst the poor deprived sections of Ahmedabad.

Naturally, the representations of projects5

(Fig.3) like Janmarg furthered the

political agenda of the state government by showcasing Ahmedabad’s development - as a precurssor of development of the state and an image of a better future.

Consequently, such projects are considered highest priorities in the state’s flagship visions for Ahmedabad and Gujarat such as in the Vibrant Gujarat events of 4

Janmarg regularly features in local newspapers, and articles update potential users to the

5

A parallel can be drawn to the Sabarmati Riverfront Development Project as elaborated in Desai (2006).

project’s benefits. Local media (Gujarat Samachar, DNA) reports on the system’s plans, facilities introduced in corridors, the opinions of well-known people (Rizvi, 2013).

Reframing transport infrastructure through ‘mobility’

19

2003,2004 (Desai, 2006) and the vision for Accessible Ahmedabad in 2005 (Rizvi, 2013). Janmarg’s representations and promotional materials was championed by the state’s Chief Minister – Shri Narendra Modi who closely aligned himself and the party with its successes (Rizvi, 2014). Thus, these representations help shape a political discourse that co-opts an equity discourse to propagate a form of development that is actually rooted in a market-driven logic. The discourse then becomes a medium by which specific agendas and interests can be forwarded. These agendas manifest as distributional inequalities in the material practices of the project – structuring space in the city in inequitable, exclusive and unjust ways.

II.ii. The social construction of public and private space This section analyses the material and spatial reconfigurations of the city that resulted from Janmarg. This is important as “(t)ransportation planning decisions influence land use directly, by affecting the amount of land used for transport facilities, and indirectly, by affecting the location and design of development” (Singh & Poddar, 2008, p. 1). The reconfigurations are analysed in two parts. The first part analyses the direct spatial and material manifestations of Janmarg, and its links to other forms of transport networks (motorised and non-motorised) in the city. The second part analyses the indirect effects of the project - in terms of evictions, resettlements and changing land-use and growth patterns of the city.

Design and manifestations of Janmarg – privatising public spaces To reach maximum number of users and at the same time not disturbing the economically and politically powerful private vehicle users of the city, Janmarg’s routes were selected in Ahmedabad’s fastest growing areas, by connecting busy places but avoiding congested roads. This was done to avoid the debate that the project was “hijacking road space away from car ownership” (Murthy, 2011, p.

127). A closed loop system was adopted which meant that the buses were always restricted to dedicated lanes. The system also comprised of full-service bus stations

20

Fig.4

Cities on the move

BRT system cross section at Bus Station - ROW 40m

and additional service facilities like pay-and-park facilities. Hence the project had to reconfigure existing road spaces to create an alternative distribution of the right of way (ROW) (Fig.4) - necessitating processes of road widening, construction of new road linkages and construction of flyovers and underpasses (Suzuki, et al., 2013). This indirectly increased the amount of total road space in the city by taking over public spaces, evicting informal areas and triggering redevelopments.

The proximity to Janmarg was also biased towards the middle and higher income groups (MIG, HIG) in the city compared to the lower income groups and the economically weaker sections (LIG, EWS). This is contrary to the fact that the latter used public transport more intensively6 in Ahmedabad (Khanna, 2009).

Both AMC-CEPT DPR’s for Janmarg (2007,2008) recommend having continuous cycle tracks of width 2 metre (increased to 2.4 metre in Phase II) and footpaths of width 2 metre on both sides of the BRT bus lanes with an attempt of modal integration of NMT with the project. However, in practice this infrastructure has not been delivered as promised. As seen in Table1, only 26% of the route has bicycle tracks, out of which one-third is affected by obstruction. Footpaths run for 84% of its length, but only 53% can be used (Mahadevia, et al., 2012). The quality of modal integration is extremely poor, and the infrastructure suffers from blockages, obstructions, flooding, appropriation for parking (motorcycles or cycles as there is no provision for these spaces), informal vending and various other purposes (Kost, 2010). To further worsen matters, bicycle tracks are completely being discarded in the current phase of the project citing space and security concerns (Mahadevia, et al., 2012).

BRT Length in

Bicycle Track Provided

Footpath Provided (L+R)

km (L+R) in km

% of BRT

in km

% of BRT

RTO to Naroda

63

20.4

32.5

53.5

85

Danilimda C.R. To Kankaria T.E. (Loop)

15

0

0

11.7

78

Total

78

20.4

26.2

65.3

83.7

Table.1

Provision of footpaths and cycle tracks along Janmarg

6

A study of Table 13 in Mahadevia, et al. (2013) reveals that people in the LIG used AMTS (public bus service) for 52.1% of their trips, compared to the HIG who used it for 35.4% of their trips.

Reframing transport infrastructure through ‘mobility’

21

The intense branding and publicity of Janmarg has created a divide between the project and the existing AMTS service (public bus service) in the city. Instead of using the AMTS as a valuable feeder system as postulated in the DPR reports, the two services compete in reality. Furthermore, AMTS services suffer as they are not permitted to use the dedicated BRT lanes, and the buses are stuck in the increased mixed traffic on the narrower roads. In fact, its services have been halted on the

Janmarg corridors. At present, there are no plans to connect both services in terms of road sharing, resource sharing and a common branding strategy. The AMTS has thus further deteriorated, with only 30-40% utilisation of its fleet after Janmarg became operational (Mahadevia, et al., 2013).

Finally, vehicle users in the city see parking as their right instead of an act that privatises public space (Mahadevia, et al., 2013). Hence, there is intense conflict regarding on-street parking in Ahmedabad after the introduction of Janmarg as the project has failed to live up to its own proposal for demarcating and creating paid-to-park facilities and designated parking zones. Thus, despite the discourse of integration and equitable distribution of road space, Janmarg lacks in terms of last mile connectivity, provisions of non-motorised transport facilities and roadside infrastructures have not been achieved. Suzuki et al. (2013) attribute this gap between the discourse of an integrated network and materialisation as an exclusive corridor to the political leadership, where the focus is on short-term solutions and not the long-term vision of sustainable, equitable urban growth. This results in distributional inequalities once the project gets implemented. As a result of Janmarg there is an increasing privatisation of road space, and lack of proper roadside infrastructure and pedestrian crossings forces users of NMT (mostly the urban poor) onto the road and into unsafe conditions.

Triggering urban transformations – developments, evictions, resettlements As a result of short term goals driven by interests of specific actors - political or economic, Janmarg focuses mainly on improving mobility (used here as synonymous to movement) and hence entrenches inequalities in the city. However, infrastructure itself has agency, and the project interacts with market responses to affect land-use, alter residential prices and influence real estate decisions – thus structuring spaces in the city (Suzuki, et al., 2013). JNNURM led to the repeal of the Urban Land Ceiling Act7 and enabled the redevelopment of closed state-owned textile mills. These are in high value locations in eastern Ahmedabad and are close to Janmarg stations. The AMC is redistributing these lands to the public sector and the private sector, with a supposed focus on social housing and commercial development (Suzuki, et al., 2013; Joshi, 2014).

There has been little proactive planning around the project to shape urban trajectories. One such initiative has been the demarcation of a 400metre wide band around the Janmarg route as a transit oriented zone (TOZ), and allow a higher FSI of 4 compared to the standard 1.8 in the rest of the city (Joshi, et al., 2017). This

7

The Urban Land Ceiling Act (ULCA) of 1976 prevented developers or individuals from owning large parcels, thus hindering the redevelopment of vacant land of the closed textile mills until the law’s abolishment in 1999 (Rizvi, 2013).

22

Fig.5

Cities on the move

Displacements as a result of Janmarg alignment

sale of additional FAR is a mechanism of value capture from public investments, and has been previously used by the government to successfully generate revenue8.

The initiative creates an intense demand for development in the area and greatly increases property prices. Not surprisingly, only local construction companies and private developers, who have aggressively expanded the real estate market in a quest to maximise private profit, can take up the land. According to Suzuki et al., property prices have doubled between 2006 and 2011, and private developers are beneficiaries, “profiting from the increased land value created by government investment” (2013, p. 100-101). This results in a slow gentrification of areas near the

Janmarg corridor and stations because of the high land rates around it.

More directly, Janmarg has been responsible for a large amount of forced evictions9, mostly of the urban poor during the process of its implementation. An estimated 2600 families have been evicted along its alignment (Joshi, 2014), mostly in eastern Ahmedabad in areas of dense low-rise sprawl (Fig. 5). A local NGO in Ahmedabad, SEWA Union (2010) in a separate study have documented a further displacement of 2000 street vendors across Ahmedabad because of the project. As part of AMC’s efforts, a section of mill redevelopment projects is dedicated to social housing and prioritised for residents of such infrastructure development projects – which haven’t been successful till date (Suzuki, et al., 2013). Furthermore, an estimated 19000 dwellings have been built with national grants that were meant for increasing the 8

In 2002, a law allowed the increase of FAR from 1.8 to 2.25 for properties next to streets with a ROW greater than 18 metres. This resulted in a revenue equalling 4.5 % of the city’s revenue in the year 2011 (Suzuki, et al., 2013).

9

Joshi (2014) estimates that 15000 residents were evicted as part of large scale infrastructure projects like the Sabarmati Riverfront Development Project, Janmarg and Kankaria Lake redevelopment.

Reframing transport infrastructure through ‘mobility’

23

low-cost housing stock in the city. These have been also used to house displaced residents (Joshi, 2014). However, resettlement sites are in remote locations and have adverse impacts on livelihoods of these families, and will be elaborated on later.

From these examples, it is evident that there has been inequitable restructuring of space in Ahmedabad as a result of Janmarg – depriving the poor and vulnerable while leading to gains for private developers, local construction companies, private sector agencies involved in Janmarg (like bus operators, technical experts, etc.) and the political and economic elites in the city.

II.iii. Social positions and identities – shaping distribution

Any dissent or resistance to Janmarg has been subdued politically by using the rhetoric that development is equal for all and results in equal benefits for all (Joshi, 2014). This section examines this assumption by an analysis of the relative benefits of Janmarg by disaggregated socio-economic groups in Ahmedabad. This analysis is based on primary surveys conducted by Mahadevia, et al. (2012, 2013) and Joshi (2014) and on issues discussed in the previous sections.

Social positions and identities of users An analysis of distribution of users according to income and gender (Table.2) reveals that Janmarg is not equal for all as represented in its discourse. A comparison of total percentage of users across income groups reveals that the lowest income groups account for a small percentage of users (a cumulative of 13.6 % of total users with monthly income less than Rs. 5000). The same users also account for half the total number of households in Ahmedabad according to the National Sample Survey consumption expenditure data of 2009-10 (Mahadevia, et al., 2013). Hence Janmarg is not used by most LIG households in the city. Furthermore, it is seen that only 12.5 % of users belonging to the highest income group (>Rs. 4000) travel on the BRT. The same group own most of motorised private transport and can afford to regularly use them.

Household Income(Rs)

Table.2

Male (&)

Female (%)

Persons (%)

Sex Ratio 385

Upto 2500

1.7

1.7

1.7

2501 - 5000

12.7

9.8

11.9

292

5001 - 7500

12.1

8.0

11.0

253 305

7501 - 10000

13.9

11.2

13.2

10001 - 20000

28.2

27.6

28.1

371

20000 - 30000

12.5

16.4

13.6

500

30000 - 40000

8

8.4

8,1

400

> 40000

10.9

16.8

12.5

585

Total

100.0

100.0

100.0

379

Income profile and Sex Ratio of BRT users, Ahmedabad

Cities on the move

24

Age (years)

Table.3

Male (&)

Female (%)

Persons (%)

Sex Ratio

Upto 14

0.4

0

0.3

0

15-40

75.9

73.8

75..3

369

41-59

19.1

22.4

20.0

60 and above

4.6

3.8

Total

100.0

100.0

10.9

12.7

444

11.8

4.1

10001 - 40000

13.6

1.5

4.4

314

> 40000

14.6

1.1

100.0

379

All

12.9

NA

Table.5 Average Trip Length (km) and Percentage of Income

Female (%)

Persons (%)

Sex Ratio

Regular Salaried Public

8.1

18

10

500

63.8

65.6

64.1

232

Self-employed high wage

13.7

9.8

13.0

162

Self-employed low wage

7.6

1.6

6.5

49

Casual Labour

6.1

3.3

5.6

121

Unemployed

0.7

1.6

0.9

500

Total

100.0

100.0

100.0

379

Employment Profile of BRT Users by Sex, Ahmedabad

The cumulative sex ratio of 379 shows that there is a sizeable gender divide, and men use the service much more than women. Additionally, the sex ratio also increases steadily as one looks at the higher income groups. This means that women from the LIG’s are least likely to use Janmarg. The age profile of users (Table.3) also reveals negligible usage by the young and the elderly (<14 and >60 constitute only 4.7 % of all users).

About two-thirds of all Janmarg’s users are workers10. The employment profile of the BRT users (Table.4) reveals that 64.1 % of the total users have a stable private sector salaried job. In contrast, users engaged in forms of employment that are characteristic of the urban poor (self-employed low wage labour, casual labour and unemployed) account for only 14.4% of the entire sample.

Finally, all groups spend a minimal amount of their income using Janmarg, apart from the lowest-income group (<Rs. 5000) who spend 12.7% of their income (Table 5). This makes it an expensive travel option for the urban poor to use the BRT for their daily commute.

Hence, the social position of Janmarg users constituted through factors like class, gender, employment profile determines mobility through a complex overlay of tradeoffs arising out of these factors. Mobility thus remains dependant on social positions and economically and socially weaker sections remain excluded. This exclusion is further reinforced by the discursive-material practices of the project, as discussed below.

10

% of income spent on travel

upto 5000

Regular Salaried Private

Table.4

Average Trip Length (In KM)

5001 - 100000

Age profile of BRT users, Ahmedabad

Male (&)

Income Group

Table 5.1: 63.8 % of BRT users in the survey are workers, with a low sex ratio of 226 – meaning that male workers travel much more than females using Janmarg (Mahadevia, et al., 2012, p. 88).

Reframing transport infrastructure through ‘mobility’

25

Discursive-Material practices shaping distributional inequalities Maintenance and daily operations of Janmarg are outsourced to private sector companies by the AJL (Suzuki, et al., 2013). Coupled with the focus on a creating and maintaining a high-tech glamorous image as discussed above, Janmarg becomes more expensive to operate and avail compared to alternative public transport systems in Ahmedabad like the AMTS or shared auto-rickshaws. The project also does not provide subsidies to the LIG. This limits the extent the poor can access Janmarg to very few trips, most of them being work-related11.

In its materialisation Janmarg also failed to adequately connect to other forms of public transport. In spite of its discourse, it was also unsuccessful in integrating to NMT by creating walking and cycling facilities, and providing adequate cycle and other vehicular parking infrastructure. While the lack of last mile connectivity showcases a gap in discursive and material practices, it severely limits the mobility of the urban poor. This is especially true in Ahmedabad where the urban-poor rely predominantly on NMT12 to not only travel in the city but also to reach facilities like

Janmarg. The lack of such facilities pushes NMT users onto mixed traffic on main roads, making roads dangerous and prone to accidents. A lack of safe and welldesigned crossings makes access to the BRT stations located in the middle of roads increasingly difficult. This also affects the ability of the young and the elderly to use

Janmarg.

It has been discussed how a co-option of the equity discourse legitimises the state’s market driven practices (Desai, 2006). These practices have triggered urban transformations in the form of gentrification, evictions, resettlement, etc. and results in compounding negative impacts on the urban poor. The resettled locations are far from the city and have limited connectivity. Joshi (2014) analyses such neighbourhoods to reveal the additional burden13 on household expenditure caused by the resettlement. This is because the process does not encompass provision of transport access and the displaced poor had to rely on their own means to reach jobs and services. This adversely impacted household budgets, sometimes replacing expenditures on items like food, education and health.

Authors like Rizvi (2014) and Suzuki, et al. (2013) have highlighted that a strong planning process was central to Janmarg’s quick and successful implementation. However, the involvement in the project was mostly limited to a handful of institutional actors like the AMC, AUDA, CEPT and a few private sector companies (like contractors, bus operators, maintenance and support companies). Though the AMC & CEPT (2008) report mentions multiple workshops and consultations14 , Joshi (2014) argues that

11

Table 6: 60.6 % of all trips in Janmarg are work related for the LIG (Mahadevia, et al., 2013, p. 61).

12

Table 5.3: Use of NMT by the urban poor is 55.4 % as compared to a city average of 32% (Joshi, 2014, p. 142).

13

The household expenditure on transport has increased above INR 300 to INR 600 in many households in the resettlement sites, many of whom were not spending much on transport earlier (Joshi, 2014, p. 174).

14

The AMC, AUDA and GOG organized a series of consultations as part of preparation of BRT Plan. A series of meetings with the academic institutions, existing bus operators were also held. Large number of presentations and exhibitions were done in public events held during the period. Two news letters have been brought out. Both the print and tele media have supported the plan (AMC & CEPT, 2008, pp. 1-5).

26

Cities on the move

there was a complete lack of participation in the planning and implementation of

Janmarg. This lack of participation is a form of exclusion that all income groups suffered from, but its effects are felt most by the already marginalised and underrepresented LIG – as they are the ones who have been most affected materially and socially as a result of the project. The lack of participation also is a manifestation of power and control by the actors in charge of the design and implementation of the project – who are free to craft a rationalisation driven by their own motivations, and perpetuate it through the project’s representation and materialisation.

Thus, distributional impacts of Janmarg reveals embedded inequalities as a result of social positions of Janmarg’s users – and their interaction with the crafted representations and material practices of the project. These exclusions never work independently, but mutually reinforce and entrench the effects of one another. Their implications are discussed in the next section.

Reframing transport infrastructure through ‘mobility’

27

CHAPTER IV Conclusion

I. Discussion: distributional inequalities as a gap between discursive intentions and material representations This dissertation has attempted to qualify the gap between the discourse of social inclusion in transport infrastructure projects and its actual materialisation through an analysis of the Janmarg project using a deep distribution framework.

An analysis of the JNNURM and NUTP reveal that Janmarg was guided, at least at the level of policy by a discourse rooted in equity, inclusivity and social justice. However, in its representation Janmargs discourse of equity has been co-opted by an alternative discourse where development is equated to increased growth and investments. This has been popularised and propagated by the by the BJP (the ruling political party) and the AMC. The nature of this co-option is subliminal and couched in the rhetoric of equity. So even though the discourse asserts that benefits of Janmarg are equally distributed to all citizens, in reality, it helps further the States’ exclusionary discourse and promotes the dream of Ahmedabad as a

mega-city. This accomplishes a twofold purpose. On the one hand, the equity discourse legitimises and increases the political favourability of the party amongst the urban poor and deprived sections of society. On the other hand, the subliminal intent garners the support of the middle and high-income groups in the city by making available opportunities for private economic gains. In fact, the promise of development as perpetrated by the BJP gained widespread support and was instrumental in its subsequent success during the national elections15 . Thus, the discourse of equity was used as a tool to further the discourse of development for political gains.

15 In the 2014 India general election the National Democratic Alliance (including the BJP

and 22 other constituent parties) won a landslide victory, capturing 336 out of 543 total

seats. BJP, led by Narendra Modi won 282 (31.34%) of the total seats (from http://www. elections.in/parliamentary-constituencies/2014-election-results.html).

28

Cities on the move

An analysis of the material practices of Janmarg makes this subliminal co-option and its resultant inequalities evident and visible. The increased privatisation of road space, the lack of NMT connections, the resultant gentrification of BRT corridors and the mass evictions make clear how a market-driven logic of development guides the implementation of Janmarg. The material and discursive practices interact together with an individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s intersecting social position to create a matrix of distributions that is not equal. In this, the dominant actors are able to further their own agendas and become increasingly mobile, while the less powerful (in this case the urban poor) are increasingly rendered immobile. The high commute fares of the project and lack of proper NMT and allied infrastructures excludes the urban poor. They are not able to access the BRT and it severely limits their ability to move through the city. Subsequent reconfigurations of Ahmedabad in the form of development policies triggered by Janmarg and the resultant gentrification, evictions and resettlements faced by the urban poor limits their ability to live in the city. Finally, a lack of any kind or participation or consultation in the planning, design and implementation process of Janmarg hampers the extent to which the urban poor can appropriate and be a part of the city. The evidence from the analysis of Janmarg thus unpacks the landscape of distributional inequality as one where gains (social, economic and political) to dominant power groups makes them increasingly more mobile, while concurrently denying the rights to the urban poor making them increasingly immobile.

Reframing transport infrastructure through ‘mobility’

29

II. Mobility as a principle for development

The national level policies like JNNURM and NUTP use transport infrastructure projects as tools to achieve equity in development. However, there is an absence

of a principle or a concept by which this discourse can be operationalised and materialised in the city. The absence of such a principle makes the co-option of the discourse easy, especially in the network society where dominant actors can capitalise on their increased mobility to direct the trajectories o f the city according to their own vested interests. As a result, the planning, design and implementation of projects like Janmarg excludes any form of participation and consultation - entrenching inequalities and shaping urban trajectories in an exclusionary way. Mobilisation of collective rights, collective interests and collective action consequently become necessary pre-conditions for a recalibration of this development process towards a more equitable one.

The dissertation argues that Mobility in its expanded sense can serve as this principle by which it is possible to operationalise a collective rightsbased discourse. In this perspective mobility is understood to encompass all kinds of movements, and affects not only the physical but also the social, economic and political realms. Mobility is hence relational – the ability of people and ideas to move.

It encompasses the possibility for all citizens to be in the city and appropriate the city.

Thus, mobility becomes a way to operationalise collective interests and shape urban trajectories. This can transform the way projects like Janmarg are implemented. Such an implementation process would involve representation of citizens from all sections of the society in its design and conceptualisation process. It would make visible the importance and relevance of all kinds of movements in the city (like pedestrians, mobile street vendors, etc). BRT projects will then include facilities such as NMT infrastructure, walkways, street lighting amongst other things. An understanding of the social and economic dimensions of mobility could reflect in the way the project acknowledges and addresses issues of gentrification, evictions, loss of livelihood for one or more sections of society. Other connected practices like value capture from sale of FAR can then also aim toward a more equitable redistribution of benefits.

Finally, this study entails a discursive shift in the way development is understood – from transport as development to mobility as development.

Equitable development from this perspective becomes one where mobility of the disadvantaged groups in the city (based on gender, disabilities, socio-economic status) is incorporated into the development of the city. This transforms the identity of disadvantaged groups from being vulnerable road users to disadvantaged citizens and explains the socially rooted choices of mobility more comprehensively. In its reconceptualised understanding, mobility becomes a social practice of citizenship, which is “constructed through making sense of the environment and patterns of acting in it” (Oommen & Sequeira, 2016, p. 16). This opens the possibility of using mobility in further research to investigate issues like identities, provision and enforcement of rights, housing, employment, and participation in urban processes.

Mobility thus becomes an effective principle for conceptualizing transport as a tool to guide equitable urban trajectories.

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Saptarshi Mitra 2016 | 2017 MSc Building and Urban Design in Development Development Planning Unit University College London London, UK