URBAN PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION IN CHENNAI AND ITS OPERATIONS AND USE BY PEOPLE

摘要

The main problem in the city is the decreasing share of mass transit trips by rail. The planners desire that the public transport trips (out of total trips) should be 60%. They also desire that in Chennai, 40% of transit trips should be by train. The long-term aim is to have four exclusive radial rail corridors and one orbital corridor as shown in Figure 1. Rail can be made more effective only if the bus and rail systems are integrated, not only in terms of service and intermodal transfer facilities but also in fare. Public view of both systems is low due to public transit's inability to meet demand, in terms of number of buses and frequency of trains on two corridors, resulting in overcrowding. Due to this view (image), people are switching to personal modes. To some extent they take Intermediate Public Transit or IPT (Vans, auto rickshaws and Company buses) due to necessity than attraction. The cycle rickshaws and auto rickshaws are more accident-prone. The IPT taxi operators in other cities (Mumbai and Calcutta), provide shared service on a point to point basis in busy areas and thus are able to increase their share of commuters. There are no takers for this concept in Chennai. Lack of funds has been the main reason for delayed implementation of many of the schemes identified for expansion of rail network and even augmentation of existing services in terms of train units. Since the Central Government has to meet demand for expansion and extensions of the system in other cities also, the annual fund flow for individual cities is low. Based on the success of joint sharing of costs of such projects in Mumbai, the State Government also has come forward to share the costs with the Central Government. The next phase of MRTS is now expected to be completed by 2002. It is known that a good rapid transit facility accelerates development of the city. Any city, which has a population over a million people should start planning for a good arterial high capacity transit system, preferably rail. When the population reaches the two million mark, it ought to have a basic established system which would not only ease congestion on roads, but also accelerate and guide the development of the city in desired direction. The city should provide for such corridors with a long-term view and reserve the land required for it. It should control the development on the reserved portion in order to avoid delays and inconvenience later at the time of implementation of the rail transit. In India, the implementation should be a joint responsibility of Central and State Governments.