Straphangers United

People using Chennai’s roads today would have realised the futility of trying to move from one point to another. After waking up late to the need to lay underground cables all over the city, the Arasu Cable Corporation is ripping up footpaths and road margins in a tearing hurry, creating huge bottlenecks. The number of vehicles on the roads has also been rising exponentially, while commercial encroachments have proliferated.

Although the Chennai media generally has little insightful coverage of the problems of urban chaos, an attempt has been made by today’s Times of India to focus on various questions.

Page 2 of the Chennai edition of the newspaper has tried to look at the problems and solutions, including congestion charging, fast-tracked transit projects such as metro rail. There is, in our view, insufficient emphasis on pedestrianisation and cycling, two of the cheap, ready to implement alternatives.

The various features in the Times today cover the following aspects:

Chennai Inc gives a wake-up call

Bikes grow in numbers, buses crawl on roads of Chennai

Experts favour satellite towns

Chennai waiting for Metro rail

We are not in agreement over the advocacy of greater sprawl in Chennai as an overarching solution for decongestion, although it is our stand that good transport links must be built without delay. Having chosen to allow residential construction between Chennai and Tiruvallur, Arakkonam, Sriperumbudur, Chengalpattu and Sholinganallur, the DMK Government can no longer remain indifferent to the transport needs of these arteries. But the sad reality is that the Government has been asleep at the wheel of its rickety transport system.

The Times also reports today that there is a proposal to augment the city bus service with a limited number of routes and with 10 air-conditioned buses. See MTC to launch 13 new routes today . We reiterate that these piecemeal solutions are NOT helping to reduce transport inflation for Chennai residents, or provide a comfortable, reliable and efficient alternative to personal vehicles. The DMK Government must stop window dressing and address itself seriously to the crisis at hand. Moreover, MTC seems to be interested in competing with suburban transport corporations in neighbouring districts, rather than improving services within the commercial districts of Chennai that more people have to use for business and social purposes. Is the laggard character of MTC traceable to its anxiety to please autorickshaw owners who command and control the price of travel today?

We must also take this moment to condemn the statement, if it was accurately reported by the media recently, that the Builders Association of India prefers to have smaller footpaths (as opposed to wider ones) and make way for more vehicles to use roads. This is a cussed, ill-informed, unprofessional and pedestrian-unfriendly attitude from an organisation that ought to know better.

The pedestrians of Chennai have accommodated a roguish class of builders serving commercial entities for a long time now. These builders have corrupted all wings of Government and ensured that available space goes to serve commercial spaces, through schemes such as CMDA’s regularisation plan, without realising that it is ordinary people who keep the cash machines ringing in the shops. Without being able to walk to shops comfortably, commercial activity can only reduce, not increase.

The Times of India today reports that the Tamil Nadu Government is to introduce legislation to create a Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority for Chennai.

The UMTA is not a new idea but one that was mooted way back in the first government formed by Ms. Jayalalitha. It has remained in cold storage ever since, with the Central and State transport agencies unwilling to talk across the table. Even now, without sustained pressure from the media and campaigners, mainly commuters, it may remain a non-starter.

It is our considered view that the announcement of the UMTA is, for the present, only to fulfil the requirements stipulated for funding under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, which in turn is derived from the National Urban Transport Policy. None of the other actions of the Tamil Nadu government have been in consonance with objectives of national policies mentioned above.

To bring about the kind of easy travel that the Times has portrayed today (and which is normal for professionally run cities), some measures do not even have to wait for the UMTA.

Top among these is the availability of Travel As You Please passes issued by MTC. These are not sold on a cyclical basis — that is, on any day of the week, for the next 30 days. Instead, MTC expects passengers to go to selected depots between the first and 15th, to get a pass. There is also no information available in the public domain about the pass options from MTC. This is unfriendly to the commuter and goes against the stated objective of NUTP. It is also uniquely inefficient from any professional management perspective. Lastly, the railways do what is proper right here in Chennai — you can buy a pass on any day, for the next 30 days on any of the suburban lines and the MRTS.

Given their recalcitrant stand to integrate operations, fares and provide seamless travel, it is unlikely that the MTC and the Southern Railway will come to an agreement soon. It remains to be seen whether the new agency will be run professionally, since there is no record of such management in the two Dravidian party governments that Tamil Nadu has had so far.

We note with regret that the urban transport sector is used by the DMK and to a lesser degree, the AIADMK, as labour banks to draw upon for political purposes. This does injustice to workers by treating them as mere political entiries with loyalty to politicians, rather than proud members of a professional transport workforce. It has also created an anomalous situation where the transport staff display a hostile attitude to commuters, whose interests are paramount in any such system.

It remains to be seen whether the UMTA, if it is indeed formed and run professionally, will take up these core issues that affect Indian transport in general, and Chennai in particular.

If this is the state near a "Metro" station, the tunnels will fill up with muck

At the risk of sounding unduly pessimistic, the question must be asked. Does the city of Chennai, with its gamut of functionally semi-literate official agencies, possess the capacity to run a sophisticated Metro rail system?

The state of crumbling, dirty, corrupt civic governance and the moribund nature of bureaucracy would make us think not.

Our rent collecting officialdom has not solved the primary requirements for a clean city that aids the movement of people and materials. Whether it is solid waste management, cleaning of drains, supplying power or maintaining public space, Chennai is a dirty mess. All of that can only flow into the new metro tunnels as they flow in the streets and canals. The sizeable number of spit-and-go city residents can only make the problem even more difficult to solve. Infrastructure can be created, but people must decide to change their habits. There is nothing elitist about being clean, it is actually a Gandhian ideal.

It is unimaginable that a modern metro rail can survive intact if it is serving an impersonal city that lacks a citizenry with a sense of civic identity. Cities may be impersonal by their very definition, and in a caste-ridden society, that is even welcome. But it offers cold comfort if you are looking for non-aggressive behaviour from those who could not care less about the state of public space.

A modern Volvo bus - should comfortable buses be available only to a miniroty of commuters?

Back to the question of metro rail, The Hindu reports today that the Japanese government has given its sanction to the costly transport system, initially to run in two arteries. That report is here. It is also worth taking a look at this report in the Business Standard, about the new funding model adopted in Hyderabad for the Metro in that city (no cost to governments, fully funded by private concessionaire although public benefits in the long term are undefined). Incidentally, Hyderabad is the first city to issue orders to form a transport authority for that city.

We feel a deep sense of apprehension about the prospects for professional operation of any metro rail in Chennai also for the following important reasons : The DMK government has failed to create a transport regulator, although it fobbed off media queries recently by stating that the Transport Minister is indeed forming such a group. That clever move was reported by The Hindu, report is here.

Also, the existing models followed by both the AIADMK Government earlier and the present DMK Government show that their philosophy of transport is one of “command and control,” with rudimentary ideas about cross-subsidisation (they have near-empty Volvo buses and poorly designed and crudely manufactured deluxe buses that charge heavy rates ostensibly to subsidise rickety ordinary services). There is also an undue influence of worker unions in operational matters. We are fully supportive of worker rights in the domain of labour and welfare, but see no reason for their influence on operational issues that are detrimental to commuter interests.

We demand that the Metro project be pursued along with a transparent functioning of the promised transport regulator. This is essential to bring about integrated transport, common ticketing and equity in service provision as envisaged under the National Urban Transport Policy.

There has to be clear fixing of responsibilities at the Chennai Corporation, which has rendered the city’s roads practically unusable, filled as they are with trash, and left broken, pitted, crumbling and woefully neglected. This administrative collapse at the Corporation is happening at a time of great commercial activity and unprecedented flow of funds in Chennai. Where is all the money going, we ask.

One only has to look at the potholes developing in the approach to the new Mahalingapuram flyover to see the point. Someone at Ripon Building is siphoning out the money ostensibly in the name of creating new infrastructure.

Even the holes dug into new roads in Mahalingapuram to put up the dais and pandals for the inauguration by Chief Minister M Karunanidhi lie unfilled, weeks after the event. Such is the capacity of our civic body and the concern of our rulers for proper spending of people’s hard-earned tax monies.

The traffic signal on Blackers Road, a key entry point to Anna Road does not work.

We have already made the point about our suburban railway and the MRTS Beach – Velachery service lying sorely neglected by the Union Railway Ministry, its Minister from Tamil Nadu and the Tamil Nadu Government. Our opaque and unprofessional bus system operated by the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) has also been commented upon in the past. We can only reiterate: clean the Augean stables.

Given such a background, we have every reason to believe that a technologically advanced system such as a metro rail cannot work with our present levels of competence in the Government agencies. It is time the Tamil Nadu government woke up to this reality and did a thorough review of its agencies. The first step to take is to set up a transport regulatory authority under law, and make it truly independent. Whether the Dravidian parties and their recently spawned offshoots have the political will for such reform remains in doubt.

Kodambakkam Station Road, which leads to the railway station. The blue pipes are for high tech optic fibre television cables. The dark stuff is filth removed from the rain duct, left to dry for days.

They are the lifeline of the country, but the Indian Railways can be justifiably criticised for remaining in a time warp. The devastating fire on the Gouthami Express which killed so many shows that most trains do not have even the rudimentary warning and communication tools that can alert passengers and the engine crew to what is happening in the middle or tail end. This is sadly the case even though mobile telephones can be used in most parts of the country, and can link head, middle and tail of a train.

Here, I am concerned about the state of the suburban railway in the city of Chennai.

As I have noted in the past, Indian politicians think nothing about sanctioning new projects for urban rail, at great cost to the taxpayer. Chennai has given the green signal for a metro railway that is certain to cross Rs.10,000 crores.

Yet, the lack of intelligence prevailing in the Railway Board prevents the modernisation of the existing urban railway network in the most cost-effective ways. This is all the more surprising, when India has a National Action Plan on climate change, where it would like to give a boost to public transportation.

This photo of a heavy-breathing old woman at Fort Railway Station is representative of this phenomenon. I have always maintained that when shopping malls can afford to put in escalators, the gargantuan railway system with its self-proclaimed efficiency should certainly do better. Why cannot these stations be modernised with bright exteriors, information put up boldly about travel and these punishing staircases be replaced or at least supplemented by escalators? But then, a joker of a Railway Minister may not be able to achieve that kind of modernisation. There is, after all, a vested interest in backwardness for some.

The other irony is that we have a Union Minister of State for Railways, Mr. Velu who belongs to a party that wants to be seen as India’s version of the Greens. But its performance has been so lacklustre, that the Minister has devoted little to nil attention to such travel requirements. What kind of Green party would not do its utmost for Railways and Bus Transport Systems when it given Ministerial opportunity?

The plight of the commuter is even worse outside the station, where lumpen politics and a dysfunctional civic government ensure that obstacles are placed all the way.

This picture says it all.

The price of living in India. An old woman makes the steep climb at Fort Railway Station

Why are we so gung ho about nuclear deals and high velocity growth, when we cannot handle basic filth in our drains and provide basic facilities to our taxpayers?

Note that you must climb these stairs to buy your ticket first, climb down to the platform level next and if you are changing lines to take the MRTS at Fort, you must cross over and descend on another platform.

It is fine to do all that when you are able bodied, relaxed and want a bit of exercise. Not when you are old, or commuting to work in a hurry.

This is the timetable for services operating on the Beach – Velachery Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) in Chennai. It supercedes earlier timetables.

Beach-Velachery MRTS Timetable 2008