Enhancing Non-Motorized Transport System of Indian Cities

Indian cities have witnessed an increasing shift to motorised modes of transportation systems while the traditional Non-Motorized Transport takes a back seat in city transportation plans. This article discusses the current status and challenges Non-Motorized Transport (NMT) Systems in India face and their role in ensuring first and last-mile connectivity and puts forth recommendations for enhancing it

The lack of effective planning and land use controls have resulted in cities expanding beyond the old city boundaries into the countryside areas. This has led to cities losing their compact forms, thus increasing the number and length of trips, which in turn increases the dependency on non-motorised transport systems. We look into different case studies elaborated in expert sessions held at the Conference on Integrated Sustainable Transport for Smart and Resilient Cities (IST Conference) during October 10-11, 2019 at UNESCO House, Chanakyapuri to provide recommendations that might improve the existing framework of NMT systems in big cities like Delhi.

Policy Frameworks for NMT

The Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) has encouraged Indian cities through its various initiatives and programmes to adopt NMT as a key element of their integrated urban transport system. An overview of these policies and programs suggests that NMT has been included but has not yielded the desired results mainly attributed to lack of implementation. To work on this, the government linked Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) funds with the NUTP’s Vision. JNNURM was launched in 2005 with an aim to develop and improvise infrastructure projects including urban transport.
The National Mission for Sustainable Habitat (NMSH), under the Prime Minister’s National Action Plan on Climate Change, constituted a sub-committee specifically focusing on urban transport systems under MoUD in 2015. Amongst the eight principles of sustainable urban transportation listed out by the sub-committee, Walking’ and ‘Cycling’ were the focus. In addition, the Service Level Benchmarks (SLB’s) developed by MoUD focused on integration of NMT with overall performance of urban transport systems by its continuous assessment of infrastructure (MoUD, 2010). A working group was set up to provide recommendations on urban transport when the 12th Five Year Plan was being formulated. One of the key recommendations delivered by this group was to allocate funds to improve, maintain and upgrade existing NMT infrastructure. Even though the policies and programs have been comprehensive enough to address the issues related to NMT and promote its usage, the implementation of the same is questionable. This is attributed to the lack of integration of multi-modal systems which can be attributed to inappropriate allocation of funds.

Challenges

Policy Framework and Finance
Statistics reveal that very few smart city proposals have allocated appropriate finances for NMT. A 2017 study conducted by SUM Net India Secretariat compared the budgets of five Indian cities and brought out linkages between sustainable transport and their budget allocations in cities of Pune, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Nagpur and Bangalore. The budget analysis revealed that the share of expenditure on motor-vehicle related projects was the highest across all five cities. The analysis also pointed out the problem of multiple organizations handling overlapping and indistinct functions. This complicated planning of transport services. Consequently, the city budgets revealed poor compliance with the vision of sustainable transport or the goals of increasing public transport and non-motorized transport trips as the budgetary allocations were not in coherence with the city
development plans.

Infrastructure Provision
NMT users have the highest share of traffic accidents due to the increase in the share of motorisation. The use of NMT has also been declining due to rise in income levels resulting in a greater number of private vehicles on road. Government data shows that the total number of registered motor vehicles has increased from about 0.3 million in 1951 to nearly 142 million in 2011. Thus, to accommodate the rising numbers of motor vehicles, the major focus of the authorities is on the provision of a transport system to enable uninterrupted flow of Motorised Vehicles and construction of foot over bridges and subways has ensued, resulting in jeopardizing the safety of pedestrians.

People’s Perception
Affordability is another aspect that can encourage use of public transport and NMT. One of the studies carried out in the city of Visakhapatnam suggested that people from lower income group (LIG) were more dependent on NMT for travelling due to its affordability. Women belonging to LIG made 80% of their trips by walking making them important stakeholders while planning and designing for Non-Motorized Transport Systems. Kalpana Vishwanath, Co-founder of Safetipin identified women as one of the vulnerable groups of society having different requirements, travel behaviour including trip chaining and trip distance.

Recommendations based on Case Examples

The recommendations are based on the case examples discussed by the experts at the IST Conference. Pune has made the highest per-capita expenditure on NMT, attributed to the devolution of ‘Urban Planning’ function to the Urban Local Body (ULB) which avoids problems created by parastatals as they act as entities working in complete silos.
The Institute of Transport and Development Policy in June 2019 highlighted that Pune is pioneering a shift from a car-centric city to a people-friendly urban setup in India. To ensure sustainability, Pune is also engaging in active community participation and public-private collaborations for effective planning and implementation of its projects.
We also need to ensure apt security and safety of streets to encourage NMT in cities. Some of the key recommendations given by Vishwanath on the enhancement of street safety include better lighting, properly designed foot paths connecting the bus stops/metro stations or transit station for safer access and display of emergency contact numbers on these stations.
Pedestrianisation of streets is another effective way of fostering walkability and cycling. One such example is the recent proposal of redevelopment of Chandni Chowk which is designed by Ar. Pradeep Sachdeva. The redevelopment plan of Chandni Chowk includes planning of two lanes for smooth movement of Non-Motorised Vehicles with public amenities such as toilets to be placed in the median, seating along the roads with plantations and development of Townhall Chowk as a pedestrian plaza.

Conclusion
NMT is a sustainable mode of transport providing accessibility to all, while having minimum emissions. Even though the benefits are numerous, there are key challenges related to NMT in India which include encroachment of NMT infrastructure, lack of proper street design, lack of focus on a proper institutional framework, improper divergence of funds for NMT, disjointed policies and goals and a lack of integration of different transportation modes. The review of literature and the relevant policies and programmes indicate that there is a pressing need for the civic authorities to allocate appropriate funds for NMT to accomplish the larger vision of National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP).
Various case studies gave insights on the good practices for planning and implementation of NMT system. A complete network plan must be in place which is well integrated with the existing and proposed public transport system of the city.