{"id":80558,"date":"2021-02-06T11:03:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-06T05:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=80558"},"modified":"2021-02-06T12:20:33","modified_gmt":"2021-02-06T06:50:33","slug":"urban-mass-transport-needs-policy-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/urban-mass-transport-needs-policy-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"Urban Mass transport needs policy reform"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/editorial\/urban-visions-the-hindu-editorial-on-need-for-policy-reform\/article33743183.ece\">The Hindu<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Gs2: Devolution of Powers and Finances up to Local Levels and Challenges Therein.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis: \u00a0<\/strong>The Budget allocation for improving Urban Mass transport is welcome. Yet much is needed to be done to achieve inclusive<strong> urbanisation.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Background:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In the recent budget, Finance Minister announced fund allocation for improving the Urban mass transport system.<\/li>\n<li>A sufficient amount is allocated for the Kochi, Chennai, and Bengaluru Metro projects.<\/li>\n<li>Budget allocation for the Metro projects in the three cities is commendable. It provides greater certainty for these cities to meet their targets.<\/li>\n<li>However, the budget allocation for improving bus transport will not be adequate.<\/li>\n<li>The budget allocation for expanding the bus transport system is (\u20b918,000 crore) under the PPP model.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Issues in the Budget proposal for Bus Transport system?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>India\u2019s ratio of buses to population is a low <strong>1.2 (per 1,000 people)<\/strong> compared to 8.6 in Thailand and 6.5 in South Africa. Some states like Karnataka are exceptions with the above national ratio.<\/li>\n<li>Moreover, Private bus services is a politically sensitive matter in some states with government monopolies in bus services.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What further needs to be done to improve Public transport in Urban India?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The challenge of urbanization needs multiple interventions apart from supplying grants to Metro and bus system<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>First,<\/strong> State governments control the Urban development instead of city administrations. They have failed to operationalize the nodal authorities to regulate transport.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Second,<\/strong> <strong>Common mobility cards<\/strong> are still in pilot mode. It would help citizens, use bus, train, and feeder networks seamlessly.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Third,<\/strong> Metro and bus services are expensive compared to the per kilometer cost of a two-wheeler.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fourth<\/strong>, Census 2011 identified no. of <strong>Census towns. <\/strong>But Urban local bodies are not yet established here. They lack access to funding, infrastructure, and capacity to meet the needs of large populations. Hence, the <strong>Recognition of census towns as urban bodies<\/strong> will provide the flow of necessary funds to these growing urban conglomerations.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Way forward<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In this context, the Centre should start working with State governments to integrate key areas with its transport vision. Such as affordable <strong>inner-city housing<\/strong>, access to civic services and health care, and enhanced sustainability, greenery, and walkability. Only integration can bring about <strong>inclusive urbanisation.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: The Hindu Gs2: Devolution of Powers and Finances up to Local Levels and Challenges Therein. Synopsis: \u00a0The Budget allocation for improving Urban Mass transport is welcome. Yet much is needed to be done to achieve inclusive urbanisation. Background: In the recent budget, Finance Minister announced fund allocation for improving the Urban mass transport system.&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/urban-mass-transport-needs-policy-reform\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Urban Mass transport needs policy reform<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[1412],"class_list":["post-80558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-soty_4","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80558\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}