Not well connected on the circuit

ALLAHABAD: It is a paradox of sorts. With a substantial increase in urban and rural population over the years, precious little has been done to address the problem of rail, road or air transportation to and from the city. This has led to the city being grouped among the disadvantageous places for business, working as well as academic classes.
Sample this.The Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) is ill-equipped to handle the rush of passengers. The corporation has barely 47 buses including those in the semi-urban areas which ply on various routes, their overlapping timings and miserable condition of the vehicles notwithstanding.
Service manager of UPSRTC, Jaideep Verma while acknowledging the need of augmenting the existing facility, however, said the situation would change soon. An entire fleet of buses would soon be added to bring about a perceptible change in the transportation, not only in the city but the entire district, he added.
However, the fact remains that despite being provided air connectivity, the passengers have limited options as flights only for New Delhi, Varanasi and Kanpur are available while the remaining parts of the country remain out of convenient reach of passengers. During the peak vacation period, obtaining a reserved ticket in flights or trains is next to impossible. However, the middlemen, travel agents as well as travelling ticket examiners earn a fast buck during this period.
As far as vehicular traffic in the city is concerned, according to official estimates, around 100 vehicles are added every alternate day to the existing fleet of vehicles that includes two-, three- and four-wheelers.
With city roads proving to be inadequate for accommodating the existing vehicular population, the situation has already reached alarming levels which has also resulted in a drastic drop in average vehicular speed in the city. The average speed has been calculated to be between four to six kilometres in crowded and less crowded roads. Anand Mohan, a social worker, said, ``Air pollution owing to traffic congestion is yet another aspect which the authorities need to look into.''
Regional officer of Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board, Mohd Sikandar informed that there is a static pollution detector installed at the Laxmi Talkies crossing as it is considered to be a commercial hub whereas another mobile detector is shifted to city areas from time to time to monitor the levels. The reports are then compiled and sent to the state headquarters for necessary action, he said.
Seema Singh, secretary of Allahabad Development Authority, said that unsystematic traffic across the city coupled with heaps of garbage dumped at every nook and corner creates a festering picture of the traffic system. Collective efforts on part of departments concerned are required to bring about a radical change in the situation, she added.
According to official figures, the number of tempos on district roads is 3,300 but in reality their numbers exceed 6,000, a fact that was acknowledged by the former circle officer, traffic, Ashutosh Mishra in an informal talk with TOI last week. He felt that though regular drives are conducted to check the errant tempo drivers, since they comprise the backbone of the public transport system in the city and district, harsh measures cannot be adopted.
Officials at the Regional Transport Office suggest there is an urgent need of diluting congestion on city roads and simultaneously introduce CNG based vehicles so as to bring down the pollution levels. They opine that feeder routes should be well connected to the main route and measures be taken to reduce the number of private vehicles on city roads. But, the added, that was possible only when the public transport system was strengthened.
The situation of rail transport is no less different. While there are a sufficient number of trains for onward journey to New Delhi, hardly any trains are available for journeys to states like Maharashtra, West Bengal and south India. The passengers are left with the only option to go in for scheduling break journeys requiring additional time as well as expense.
When TOI spoke to some intellectuals about the cost of public transport, they opined that it has never been cheap to build public transport irrespective of when it was built and how rich the city was. It is ultimately the people who have had to bite the financial bullet.
The cost is more than material. The cost is energy spent in moving the city, its people and politicians, from the inertia due set mode of thinking and entrenched interests. Delhi took more than 30 years to get started. If they had got it done back then, metro would have been all paid for by now and a structure would have evolved by now.
Presently, public transport in Delhi is faced with the daunting task of taming an overgrown hydra. The moot question is when does Allahabad start and how far does it go? With urban population pegged anywhere between 18-20 lakh the city is sans dedicated planners and a dedicated public transport system. The Mahanagri bus sewa too has proved to be highly ineffective.
Under the circumstances would launching UPSRTC branded autos be a plausible solution ? Broadly speaking, most would agree about the two urgent areas of improvement on pure people transportation front - long haul services - predictability and perception and last mile connectivity to minimise "transit" gaps. Discussions have been held on several platforms about semi dedicated bus lanes on important radial roads. But the point remains that big improvements will take time and investment.
Says S K Lal, executive council member and senior lecturer in economics department of Allahabad University, ``If we can throw up ideas there are a few people among us that have the ears of UPSRTC and we can raise some of the feedback and suggested solutions/ideas to them. There is no guarantee that anything will get implemented, but if don't try then nothing will happen for sure.''