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National Urban Transport Policy |
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Actionable Excerpts from National
Urban Transport Policy.
(From the website of ministry of urban devolvement, Government
of India - urbanindia.nic.in)
Introduction
India's urban population is currently around 30% of its
total population. Experience across the world has been that
as economies grow, rapid urbanization takes this proportion
over 60 % before they stabilize. As such it is projected
that India's urban population will grow to about 473 million
in 2021 & 820 million in 2051 as compared to 285 million
in 2001. Hence cities must not only meet the mobility needs
of the current population but also provide for the needs
of those yet to join the urban population. In this context,
the government of India has launched the National Urban
Renewal Mission (NURM) that inter-alia seeks to bring about
comprehensive improvements in urban infrastructure, committing
substantial funds for this purpose and requiring a series
of reforms that would make the investment sustainable. (Para
2, page2)
Billons of men hours are lost with people "stuck in traffic".
The primary reason for this has been the explosive growth
in the number of motors vehicles, coupled with limitations
on the amount of road space that can be provided. For example,
on an average, while the population of India's six major
metropolises increased by about 1.9 times during 1981 to
2001, the number of motor vehicles went up by over 7.75
times during the same period.
Increased use of personal vehicles has led to increased
air pollution. (Para 3, page 2)
Unless the above problems are remedied, poor mobility can
become a major dampener to economic growth and the cause
the quality of life to deteriorate. A policy is, therefore,
needed on the approach to dealing with this rapidly growing
problem as also offer a clear direction and a clear framework
for the future action. (Para 4, page 3) |
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Objectives
The Objective of this policy is to ensure safe, affordable,
quick, comfortable, reliable and sustainable access for
the growing of city residents to jobs.
• Incorporating
urban transportation as an important parameter at the urban
planning stage rather than being a consequent requirement.
• Bringing about a more equitable allocation of road
space with people, rather than vehicles, as its main focus.
• Establishing effective regularly and enforcement
mechanisms that allow a level playing field for all operators
of transport services and enhanced safety for the transport
system users.
• Establishing institutional mechanisms
for enhanced coordination in the planning and management
of transport system.
• Building capacity (institutional
and manpower) to plan for sustainable urban transport and
establishing knowledge management system that would service
the needs of all urban professionals, such as planners,
researchers, teachers, students,
• Raising finance,
through innovative mechanisms that tap land as a resource,
for investments in urban transport infrastructure.
•
Taking up pilot projects that demonstrate the potential
of possible best practices in sustainable urban transport.
(Para 5, page4) |
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Equitable allocation of Road Space
Transport planning is intrinsically linked to land use planning
and both need to be developed together in a manner that
servers the entire population and yet minimizes travel needs.
(Para 8, page5)
At present, road space gets allotted to whichever vehicle
occupies it first. The focus is therefore, the vehicle and
not people. The result is that a bus carrying 40 people
is allotted only two and a half times the road space that
is allotted to a car carrying only one or two person. In
this process, the lower income groups have, effectively,
ended up paying, in terms of higher travel time and higher
travel cost, for the disproportionate space allotted to
personal vehicles. Users of non-motorized modes have tended
to be squeezed out of the roads on account of serious threats
to their safety. If the focus of the principle of the road
space allocation were to be the people, then much space
would need to be allotted to public transport systems than
is allotted at present. (Para11, page6)
The
Central Government would, therefore, encourage measures
that allocate road space on a more equitable basis, with
people as its focus. This can be achieved by reserving lanes
and corridors exclusively for public transport and non-motorized
three persons popularly know as High Occupancy Vehicle Lanes).
Past experience has been that such reserved lanes are not
respected by motorist and therefore lose meaning. In order
to facilitate better enforcement of such lane discipline,
suitable provision would be introduced in the Motor Vehicle
Act and other instrumentalities to enable stringent penalties
for violation. (Para 12, page 6) |
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Need to Shift from Personal
to Public Transportation and Segmented Approach.
Public transport serves another social purpose. It helps
reduce congestion and the air pollution, if users of personal
vehicles can be persuaded to shift to public transport.
Their needs are, however, for improved quality and not much
for low fares. It is, therefore necessary to think of different
types of public transport services for different segments
of commuters. (Para16, page7)
A good public transport system is the one that is perceived
by the user as a single and allows seamless travel between
one made and the other as also between systems managed by
different operators. Such seamless interchange is possible
if proper inter-change infrastructure is available and users
are able to use single ticket over all such system. This
also requires that a single agency takes responsibility
for coordination so that there is a common approach to public
transport planning and management. (Para 21, page9)
Para transit is normally expected to fulfill a need that
neither public transport or personal vehicles are able to
fulfill. (Para26, page10)
The segregation of
vehicles moving at different speeds would help improve traffic
flow, increase the average speed of traffic and reduce emission
resulting from sub-optimal speeds. (Para27, page10)
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Parking, Land Use and its Pricing.
Land is valuable in all urban areas. Parking places occupy
large portion of such lands. This fact should be recognized
in the determining the principles for allocation of parking
space.
Levy of a high parking fee, that truly represents the value
of the land occupied, should be used as a means to make
the use of public transport more attractive. Preference
in the allocation of parking space for public transport
vehicles and non-motorized modes as well as easier access
of work places to and from such spaces would go a long way
in encouraging the use of sustainable transport system.
Park and ride facilities for bicycles users, with convenient
inter-change, would be another useful measure. Simultaneously,
a graded scale of parking fee, that recovers the economies
cost of the land used in such parking, should be adopted.
The objective would be to persuade people to use transport
to reach centers.
State government would be required to amend building
bye laws in all million plus cities so that adequate parking
space is available for all residents/users of such buildings.
To enable this, FAR norms would be made liberal. Multi-level
parking complexes should be made a mandatory requirement
in city centers that have several high rise commercial complexes.
Such complexes could even be constructed underground, including
below areas declared as green belts in the master plan.
Such complexes could come up through public-private partnership
in order to limit the impact on the budget. All such parking
complexes would be encouraged to go in for electronic metering
so that is there is better realization of parking fee to
make the investment viable and also a better recovery of
the cost using valuable urban space in the parking of personal
motor vehicle. In residential areas too, appropriate changes
in bye-laws would be considered to free the public carriage
way from parked vehicles that impede the smooth flow of
traffic. Proposals for parking complexes would also be
given priority under the National Urban Renewal Mission.
Provision would also be made in the appropriate legislation
to prevent the use of the right of way on road system for
parking purposes. (Para34, page 11) |
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Freight Traffic within the cities.
The timely and smooth movement of freight is crucial to well being of the people and the
viability of the economics activities they undertake. However, with limited capacity of the
transport system, it is essential that freight traffic and passenger traffic are so staggered
as to make optimum use of the transport infrastructure. It is a time honored and tested practice
to use off-peak passenger travel times to move freight. Many cities have earmarked late night
hours for movement of freight and restricted the entry of heavy vehicles into cities during
daytime. Further, several cities have by-passes that enable through traffic to go around the
city and not add to city traffic. These practices are sound and would be encouraged in all
cities. For this purpose, cities would be encouraged to build bypasses, through innovative
and viable public-private partnership. Similarly, facilities for the parking of freight
vehicles outside the city limits, such as truck terminals, would also be encouraged through
public-private partnerships. (Para 36, page 12)
Innovative Financing Mechanisms Using Land as a Resource
The central government would encourage the levy of dedicated taxes to be credited to an urban
transport fund and used exclusively to meet urban transport needs within the state. Such dedicated
taxes could be in the form of a supplement to the petrol and diesel taxes, betterment levy on
landowners or even an employment tax on employers. In fact, revenues from betterment levy along
new high capacity public transport corridors would be included as a component of the financing
plan for such transport systems. (Para52, page 15)
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Need for Public Awareness and Cooperation
Urban transport policies cannot succeed without the fullest corporation of all the city residents.
Such co-operation can be best secured if the objectives are made clearly known to them. It is,
therefore, necessary to launch intensive awareness campaigns that educate people on the ill effects
of the growing transport problem in urban areas-especially on their health and well being. The
campaigns would seek their support for initiative like greater use of public transport and non-motorized
vehicles, the proper maintenance of their vehicles, safer driving practices, and etc. such campaigns
would also encourage individual, families an communities to adopt "Green Travel Habits" that would
make travel less polluting and damaging. The Central Government would take up a major awareness
campaign in this regard and seed the support of the State Government in its implementation.
Particular emphasis would be laid on bringing about such awareness amongst children through
inputs in their school curricula. (Para55, page 16)
Pilot Projects
In order to demonstrate the potential benefits from the policy measures suggested herein, The
Central Government would take up pilot projects in a sample set of cities drawn from different
regions and different city types so that tested models of best practices can be established for
replication in other cities. (Para56, page 16)
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