Redesigning Public Transport in India
“Aruppukottai Onnaaruba” (Aruppukottai –Rs.1.50 per ticket) bus conductors used to shout in front of their buses in Virudhunagar bus stand twenty five years back. Aruppukottai is a well known trading center in south tamil nadu. I recently traveled to Aruppukottai from my native and the fare is now Rs.5.50 per ticket. But this is the only discernible change that I could notice. Everything else - from people jumping via window grills to throwing towels to grab a seat has remained absolutely the same in these 25 years. Even the paint of ‘SRI JAYAVILAS’ buses have remained the same in a few cases. ‘SRI JAYAVILAS’ used to be the KPN equivalent for mofussil buses in the south.
Compare this to the strides made in telecommunication in India in the last twenty years. This is also the period when the lifestyles of the urban folks have undergone such a drastic change that NRI’s are seriously pondering R2I leaving behind the comforts of the developed world.
Next comes sectors like healthcare, which has undergone tremendous change for the elite. People from all over the world take their flights to India in pursuit of world class healthcare, for those who are willing to pay for it.
And there are some laggards where no matter rich or poor, urban or rural, all suffer since time immemorial and there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel. Public transportation is one of them. If one had watched GANDHI, one would’ve noticed people traveling on train tops during pre-independence days. I am sure we can see people traveling on train tops even today in some parts of the country. So what is the improvement in all these 65 61 years of independence? From the overcrowded MTC buses in Chennai to the Mumbai sub-urban trains or to the overcrowded SRINIVASAs and SRI JAYAVILAS’ in semi-rural Tamil Nadu. The landscape may change, but the grimness is the same.
The critical differences between sectors like, say telecommunications and public transport are straightforward. Telecommunications was entirely at the behest of DoT, a central government undertaking while road transport has been a state subject. Telecommunications allowed the entry of private players while transportation is still at the behest of our state government run corporations except for railways which again has no private player.
I seriously do not understand why government should get into the business of operating buses. I also do not understand the logic of operating a bus between town A and B when a mini-bus or van run more frequently would help keep things agile and flexible.
Railways is definitely doing better than state run transport corporations primarily because they come under one ministry for the whole of India. But there is lot of scope for improvement there as well. For e.g Arupukottai is yet to come in the rail network, so does towns like Dharapuram in Erode district while Mel Maruvathur has a railway station where all the express trains ‘must’ stop. I don’t have anything against Bangaru Adigalar but I believe trade centers should have priority over Bhakti in a country like India – at least in matters like getting railway stations. I seriously think Laloo should hire a marketing manager to identify new, financially viable areas to be brought into the rail network.
The Chennai-Tirunelveli rail corridor, despite being one of the most lucrative sectors for the southern railways still handles all the traffic in a single track. Oh yeah we still run diesel engines for the most part. Oil is getting pretty cheap nowadays, right?
Another of my question is about market segmentation. Why not charge more from people who can afford to pay. Tatkal is a classic example and a great revenue earner for the railways. Charge more from those who book late. I am sure a special train with only 3 tier a/c coaches will fetch more revenues for the railways in sectors like Chennai-Coimbatore, Chennai-Bangalore, Chennai – Madurai on weekends while addressing the need of the passengers as well. I believe there are lot of cities like this in the rest of India. I hear people paying anywhere from Rs. 700 to Rs. 1000 on weekends to travel from Madurai to Chennai for omnibus tickets.
It’s easy to construe this post as one against the obvious infrastructure woes that India has now become notorious for and something we are addressing with all the golden quadilaterals and 6-lane highways. In fact, I tend to think things are not going to improve with golden quadilaterals and six-lane highways. It’s like saying the websites will get more user friendly if internet bandwidth goes up. I don’t think it works that way.
What we need is focus and strategic thinking at the highest level. Overhauling the public transport for passenger and freight traffic will have a tremendous impact on the economic progress of the small towns and villages much higher than the envisaged Rs.60,000 crore farm loan waiver.
March 12th, 2008 at 12:40 am
PK… AFAIK, only 20% of Indian Railways is electrified (specially the main trunk routes)… rest are by Diesel Locos… not only in TN.. majority of the routes in India are worked by Diesel Locos…
March 12th, 2008 at 2:09 am
asalamuleygum post
March 12th, 2008 at 6:26 am
I like this post a lot PK mainly coz I was thinking of the very same issues few wks back, but never managed to translate into words, as you have done.
March 12th, 2008 at 8:10 am
Do u support tatkaal Mr.Prabhu?…To me it sounds like govt getting into blackmarketing…
March 12th, 2008 at 8:31 am
PK,
I read your post and then happened to read this..
http://nvasukirao.blogspot.com/2008/03/with-cockroaches-as-co-passsengers.html
Thiagu
March 12th, 2008 at 8:46 am
PK, its true that the public transport in India has a long way to go but somehow I am not fully convinced that privatisation would help. Ofcourse, I was supporting privatisation but it definitely needs a hand to be controlled. Look what happened to the telecom industry itself. If not for an establishment like TRAI, am sure most companies would be looting us (as they do even now at every possible chance). And one more instance to quote would be the private bus services between Bangalore and Chennai. Just due to the demand (and the affordable IT class as well), the ticket prices in private buses have shot up multifold (I remember back in 2000 when the nomial cost would be 150 in KSRTC, the private buses would charge 300-350 Rs). Again, no one to question them. It would be nice if someone like TVS (or other genuine parties) start up such initiatives with the backing and monitoring of the government else it defeats the very purpose of making good transport (reasonably) afforadable for everyone.
March 12th, 2008 at 8:58 am
good post man..every time I bring up similar under-development issues among some of my friends, i am branded an “outsider” or “armchair philosopher” types… like so “dei poda…nee periya ivana.. vella kaarana aite da..” blah bleh blah..
glad to know that Indians in India feel the same way too…
and not to be anal - but has it not been 61 “free” years as of last Independence day? any specific reason you’ve mentioned it as 65? if so, please echooch my ignorance and explain..
March 12th, 2008 at 9:45 am
gowri,
As i mentioned to u in chat, chennai vilupuram is already electrified. vaigai runs in electric locos till vilupuram. You may have your own reasons as a rail fan but that still translates to a more expensive way to operate given the current global oil prices.
karthik shankaran,
nandri hai.
btw for heaven’s sake please call me asap
March 12th, 2008 at 9:47 am
ratna,
Just to give another perspective, have you ever booked an airline ticket 2 months in advance within India? Try booking the same ticket 2 days before your travel for the same destination. i bet the fares are different, and for a reason
March 12th, 2008 at 9:51 am
Ravi,
First, however we feel about the way our telecom companies function(i’ve had my own complaints about Airtel), but still our telecom rates are the cheapest. All said and done its better than the days when we had to pay 300 bucks as bribery just to have my Dot (Pre- BSNL days) phone installed when we got our first telephone connection in 1998.
Sure, i am not averse to having an autonomous regulatory authority. It has worked for telecom and there’s no reason it should not work for transport too.
March 12th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Arun,
Whenever i criticise about the way things work in India, i also try to give whatever suggestions i sincerely know for things to improve.
My suggestions may not be the most sophisticated but i do try to convey my adhaangam rather than a cynical disdain for this country.
Thats why amid all the criticism i don’t end like ‘Indha country urupadaadhu’ as some guys keep saying during informal conversations. We have improved in a few areas but we need to learn and adapt our success stories to other areas as well.
Reg. 65 years. I wanted to highlight not just the year of independence and after but also the pre-independence days well before that.
March 12th, 2008 at 10:20 am
arun,
I just noticed i had mentioned 65 years of independence and not just’65 years’ as i thought i did.
Mistake corrected and thanks for the pointer
March 12th, 2008 at 10:23 am
chakra,
enakku enna aadhaangam eppo varum nu sollave mudiyadhu.
Thanks for the feedback.
Going forward i intend to write less frequently but hopefully with more substance.. lets see. Posts like this takes a day to draft but its satisfying when a serious post like this gets good feedback
March 12th, 2008 at 11:07 am
thiagu,
i was about to write on the state of toilets in sleeper class coaches in which i traveled this weekend. but decided not to since the rest of the post was dealing with some macro issues. i reserved it for another topic another time. en vaayai kelariteenga!
March 13th, 2008 at 3:32 am
No difference in the bus rates from blore to chennai. At the max would be somewhere around 25 to 50 rupees. And that too if you are staying somewhere around 10 to 15 kms from Majestic, you need to pay thrice the amount to reach there. Not all the buses take the same route. For example, only three AC buses of KSRTC ply through Hosur. This is one reason I take private buses. You have all the buses (most of them) plying through hosur and you pay the exact rate rather than spending for auto. You get in or get out in the place you require.