MULTIMODAL TRANSPORT
Need for Adoption of Innovation to Enable Multimodal Integration in Indian Cities
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ndia’s rapidly expanding urban centres are under tremendous stress as the existing transport infrastructure falls short of meeting the growing travel demands of an increasingly mobile urban population. While public transport agencies have tried to adapt to the demand, limited investment has often led to poor service levels. Adaptive operational plans meeting city commuting patterns and increased inter-institutional engagement will allow for better efficiency in resource allocation. One of the responses to counter the many negative impacts of congestion and pollution has been for Indian cities to invest in high-quality mass rapid transit systems. With addition of a transportation option that provides for a comfortable and reliable commuting option, what now remains is to address enabling of a mobility transition among urban commuters towards more multimodal transport solutions. Much of what is required to enable this is for metro rail agencies to create partnerships and complementarity with other modes of transport keeping commuter experience at its core while planning and strategizing for an integrated mobility service. Though Indian metro rail systems are experiencing growing adoption in Indian cities, they still have to deal with many challenges. Extending quality service and reliability that the system offers to the entirety of the journey while ensuring WWW.URBANTRANSPORTNEWS.COM
Sudeept Maiti Prateek Diwan Transport Professional Associate, WRI India WRI India
that door-to-door trips are competitive, both in terms of cost and comfort levels that are offered by other modes is essential. By implementing services that address these two aspects is when true commuter shifts from private vehicles to public transportation will take place. Addressing these challenges would require addressing issues such as growing dependency on privately owned vehicles for door-to-door trips due to convenience and comfort, integrating ticketing systems to enable seamless commuter experience and reduction of queueing time at different legs of the journey, safety and security of the passengers at metro stations, ease of access to metro stations and other complementary mass transit, parking of vehicles to enable ‘park and ride’ passenger transfers, increasing electric vehicle charging infrastructure, an initiative that would help push for more carbon neutral access. Considering many of these falls in the domain of multiple public and private agencies, a multistakeholder engagement in cities to cocreate and develop a strong solution is required.
A large degree of inconvenience to commuters and inefficiency in services could be attributed to lack of integration among services. In 2006, the Government of India published the National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP) that recommends the creation of a Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA) in all cities with a million or more inhabitants. However, while many such organisations have been constituted, they do not have much authority or autonomy. Indian cities still have several distinct public transportation agencies who operate in silos that limits optimal governance and functions to be planned and managed, often leading to inefficient use of resources and hampers impact. While there are discussions for a stronger umbrella body – UMTA, to ensure seamless integration of various modes of commuting and to improve coordination among the various agencies, there is yet to be significant progress on this front. UMTA proposes to enable and implement integrated ticketing, rolling out transportation
MARCH 2020 // Urban Transport Infrastructure
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