Delhi Needs More Buses

Delhi's first Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Corridor that extends from the Lajpat Nagar Metro Station to Ambedkar Nagar used to be a major cause of traffic jams in the area. People had to cross 6.75-mt-wide general purpose lanes on each side of the 3.3-mt-wide corridor which led to frequent traffic jams. Built at a cost of Rs 190 crore, the corridor will be demolished from January 19 onwards and will be converted into a normal road.

Despite the decision to demolish the corridor, the Delhi government said it was not against the BRT system and they it would plan more such corridors for the city.

Too rapid to handle?

Indian cities do not have enough surfaced roads. But, an equally important problem is that roads and junctions are poorly planned. Economist Alex Tabarrok points out that Gurgaon, a city adjacent to Delhi, for example, has 1.6 km of surfaced roads per 1,000 persons, while American cities like San Francisco has 10 km of  higher quality roads per 1,000 persons. Moreover, even the best of Indian roads are cases of poor planning which lead to road congestion, air pollution and serpentine jams.

Indian cities need more high quality roads and buses. The reason is that if a neighbourhood is not well served with a sufficient bus transport network, people are likely to commute in private cars, or in autorickshaws or pooled-in cars or shared autorickshaws. People are also likely to travel in overcrowded buses. This would impact the functioning of labour markets to a great extent, because transportation is more expensive, time consuming and less comfortable. Moreover, a single bus carrier can carry more people than many autorickshaws or private cars carry. So, when the public transport system is not robust, roads are likely to be more polluted and congested.  This is especially true of dense cities like Delhi where over 1,400 new cars enter roads every day. Delhi is also more of a decentralised city, where jobs and residences are at a long distance from each other. Problems would still persist, if the supply of buses is centralised in a single operator like the government.

Buses can also be an effective way to tackle the commuting woes of a city like Delhi, where roads are so congested and polluted that the state government decided that cars with odd and even licence plate numbers should ply on roads on alternate days.