[fwd] [sustran] Motorisation in India & in Indian cities

jean-christophe helary helary at niji.or.jp
Thu Jun 7 03:48:42 PDT 2001


----- Forwarded message from kisan mehta <kisansbc at vsnl.com> -----

From: "kisan mehta" <kisansbc at vsnl.com> To: <sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org> Subject: [sustran] Motorisation in India & in Indian cities Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 15:21:56 +0530 X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2615.200

Dear Paul, Anilbhai and Colleagues,

It was good that Paul put Anil Agarwal's exhaustuve article "Incompetence at its best" before Sustran members. The article exposes the government bias for motorisation in India despite increase in hardship to citizens. The World Bank and the IMF have issued dictat to poor countries to build infrastructure to allow to multinational corporations free access to their markets including making automobiles easily available. Private car is the barometer measuring success of liberalisation hence all incentives and concessions to be extended.

Car manufacturers shout that the market has sagged hence reduce taxes. Supply gasoline at regulated low price even though global oil prices have shot up. This will cost Rs 120 billion (Rs 48 equals $ 1) to the national exchequer in the current financial year. Gasoline prices in India are lower than prices ruling in the developed countries. Our ministers do not want to worry about upgrading diesel (now increasingly being used in personal cars) because that may raise diesel prices which to-day is lower than that of bottled water. Supplying surplus food at concession to the poorest of the poor to stave off starvation deaths is not on the government agenda. This is the loyalty we exhibit to the WB/IMF to avoid WTO censure. It may not be correct to term the actions of bureaucrats and ministers as Incompetence At Its Best as euphemistically described by the author. They work most competently to exhibit their loyalty to affluent countries even if that means flouting court directives and disregarding citizen opinion.

Pavements are removed or drastically narrowed down for widening carriageways as well as constructing flyovers/elevated roads and then make them out of bounds to public transport. Rump pavements are used for parking by private cars. Streets too narrow for providing pavements are made `one way streets' to allow parking on both sides. Job of the Traffic Police is to create more parking space in Mumbai and possibly throughout India. There is a High Court directive on the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) to build pavements where they do not exist and restore them but who cares.

Vehicles pay absolutely no charge or tax for use of roads. What Mr. Agarwal refers to is the state government's annual vehicle registration, which has now been turned into one time tax, compounded to the sum payable for 17 years with concession given to old cars by reducing the amount for the number of years that they are on the road. There is no provision for scrapping a vehicle on the expiry of stipulated period. It is common to see 25 year old ramshackles making lot of noise on the road while smoking like nobody's business. This tax has nothing to do with road maintenance/construction as that is the obligatory duty of the municipal body. The government on the other hand collects from every bus commuter a passenger tax and a surcharge what used to be known as nutrition charge when it was first introduced in 1971-72. These surcharges accounting to 6 to 8% of the fare are collected through bus ticket so no chance of skipping. Again revenue not to be utilised for improving public bus service or easing traffic conditions.

The MCGM spends about Rs 3 billion(appro 12-14% of its budget) annually on road construction but this is not realised from vehicle owners. Car owners in Mumbai used to pay a paltry amount annually by way of wheel tax. My father paid annually Rs 140 for his Ford purchased in 1937 at Rs 4,500. I paid wheel tax at the same rate till1989. When I changed over to 800 cc Suzuki (assembled and marketed as Maruti) in 1989 costing Rs 200,000, my annual wheel tax was reduced to Rs 100. Total wheel tax realisation by the MCGM came to Rs 35 million against annual spending of Rs 3 billion. The state government last year directed the MCGM to stop demanding this tax so even 35 million are no more realised. The tram fare for 12 km distance in 1937 was 16th part of a rupee while the bus fare now comes to Rs 10. Mumbai discarded trams in the fifties to remove hurdles to usher in emerging cars. The MCGM in addition charges Rs 6 to 7 million to the municipalised BEST Bus Undertaking which again falls on commuters.

Buses cannot use 52 flyovers built during 1999-01 at public cost of Rs 18 billion. They ensure uninterrupted movement to car owners while leaving buses and all types of motorised and nonmotorised vehicles to fight for space on the original patch making pedestrians running helter skelter to avoid being run over. The BEST buses, attaining an average speed of 14 km/h because of jams, provides about 5 million journeys daily, probably the highest for city public road transport in the world in contrast to less than one million journeys by Mumbai's one million cars. Mumbai is fortunate in having a comparatively better public road transport than other cities including Delhi as the BEST is municipalised and professionally managed. Shortfall is made up by citizens by paying higher electricity charges.

Traffic snarls and congestion are an everyday experience. Bureaucrats built flyovers but this has only aggravated jams as many more vehicles now enter and move in the congested areas. Bureaucrats do not know and rather do not want to know that traffic is better controlled by eliminating or at least reducing unessential vehicles on roads and by creating conducive conditions for BEST buses to have higher turnaround. Traffic management and road pricing are absent. Mumbai's population increases by less than 2% a year while motor cars by 8% yet no restrictions. Traffic planners do not take citizens as a factor of traffic whose needs and hardship should normally be the topmost concern.

We have been suggesting levy of wheel tax on the basis of the gravity of congestion in different zones. For example, 800 cc Maruti and Mercedes wanting to enter the congested South Mumbai shall take annual green card paying Rs 10,000 and 25,000 respectively per year, amber for slightly less congested areas Rs 8,000 and 20,000 and red for comparatively free areas Rs 6,000 and 15,000. Loans extended by government and private financial institutions at practically no interest for personal car should be stopped. Today, financial institutions run after car owners acquiring first or nth car, to extend loan but would not help citizens to buy a cycle at Rs 1,500.

Many Indian cities have already seen that traffic jams and accidents are not reduced by flyovers and elevated roads. As construction and maintenance cost does not fall on the sole users, the motorists, this only increases the number of private cars. General public who bear the cost of these gadgets face suffocation and death. So it is more than certain that the American pattern of more and more roads cannot be the solution for Indian cities. Road widening and construction result in breaking down communities and increasing antisocial activities. Los Angeles is no more considered as an articulating city reflecting the aspirations of residents. Mumbai surrounded by sea on practically all sides cannot have more roads.

The only solution lies in following what is now being pursued on the Continent and Singapore of taking more cars off the road by strengthening public transport including rebuilding tramways rejected by bureaucrats as outmoded . It would be necessary to raise the price of gasoline plus levy pollution and congestion tax at 10% each and use the amount for reducing pollution and congestion. Who understands this, not at least ministers and bureaucrats.

Kisan Mehta, Save Bombay Committee, 629 Jame Jamshed Road, Dadar East, MUMBAI 400 014

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