COMMENTS

@ Naveen

Kochi is my home town, and I visit the city quite often. And, I use every opportunity to avail the buses services (totally privatised) there (inspite of having enough cars at my disposal), largely because of the excellent connectivity, frequency, reliability, and cleanliness (check page 41 of this report, where the PT trips percentage for Kochi is listed at 51 - amongst the highest in the country, whereas, for Bangalore, it is 35. Again, for comparison purposes, for Trivandrum, where the services are again the monopoly of the government, it is just 21).

The only negative aspect of the Kochi services is the rash driving, resulting mainly out of the unviable fare regime - read the following excerpts from the study commissioned by Ministry of Petroleum, cited by me here.
 

• Clearly, there is a strong case for promoting private enterprise in meeting transport needs in urban areas.
  
• An aspect of public policy that impacts on provision and expansion of public transport either by state owned utilities or by private entrepreneurs, relates to the unviable fare structures imposed by the authority.
  
• With improved efficiency, the fare structure can continue to remain low while still providing for overall viability of the operations.

Whatever, in this aspect also, I don't think they are any worse than our own BMTC. And, if freed from the license-permit regime, they could provide a model for the rest of the country to follow, atleast at the lower end.

I have stated this many times before, and I didn't want to repeat myself all over again. But, unmindful of it all, when you carry on as if you are the ultimate authority on the Kochi scene, I feel compelled not to allow it to pass without comment.

I expect it's more or less the same in Mangalore (again, fully privatised) also. But, since I do not have first hand experience, I shall refrain from making any assertions. However, here's a view which more or less corroborates mine.

Further, quoting you from here

When I had suggested operation of mini-buses on narrow streets to access interior areas that are difficult to access with larger buses, they had stated that they would rather operate the larger buses than mini-buses as maintenance costs were higher & it was difficult to maintain mini-buses since they were not reliable - thus, operation of mini-buses was unviable. I found this hard to accept as many mini-buses were in operation satisfactorily (such as Swaraj Mazda & Tata Starbus) - being operated by several private companies for their staff.

But, for all that, it's surprising that you would rather remain an apologist for BMTC, than demand the opening up of the sector for competition. Oh yes, the regulator has to come first, right!? It's the chicken and egg situation all over again. And, the answer to that, I have tried to state here. But, you would prefer the status quo. And, that's exactly what the BMTC, Transport Dept lot want too. But, mind you, it's the city and citizens, particularly the aam admi, that are having to pay the huge price for it all.
 

• thumb_up 46 Likes
• · login or register to post comments

 And what does this say about the demand supply gap for public transport services?

We are creating Al Capones and Veerappans. Shouldnt RTO be building a Regulator instead of a Police force. If you have ban you will get deadly arrack and not a Jhonnie Walker.

• thumb_up 35 Likes
• · login or register to post comments

The news report states :

One can see a number of old buses, most of them bought either from the coastal districts of the State or from a neighbouring State, plying between K.R. Market and Nagawara via Shivajinagar; K.R. Market and Hessarghatta via Majestic; K.R. Market and Marathalli; K.R. Market and Hoskote; K.R. Market and Vijayanagar K.R. Market and Kengeri, and K.R. Market and Ramanagaram to name only a few routes.

Thus, most of these sub-standard buses appear to operate out from KR market. I don't think it would be hard to accost them there itself - at KR market. Once they are driven out from there, they will of course find a new location, but the efforts to weed them out has to be done continuously.

I also noticed a lot of shabby mini-buses on Hosur road with TN or Kerala plates - something needs to be done there as well.

• thumb_up 46 Likes
• · login or register to post comments

Good report there. The rise is really noticeable. And in one case, I saw some exchange (money? not sure) between a traffic cop and a bus that was parked at Marathahalli.

Don't think all the routes run till K R Market. I definitely see some buses and mini buses do the marathahalli to Whitefield station route. The bus that does these rounds in the morning and evenings carries the Bangalore Hoskote board.

Who owns these buses? Hope Hindu does digging at this level as well.

And what does this say about the demand supply gap for public transport services?

Time for BMTC to rethink and let other players play in the local public transport market. There is scope for everyone. BMTC can make more than what it makes today, and perhaps 2-3 more players can thrive along.

• thumb_up 32 Likes
• · login or register to post comments

And what does this say about the demand supply gap for public transport services?

Time for BMTC to rethink and let other players play in the local public transport market. There is scope for everyone. BMTC can make more than what it makes, and perhaps 2-3 more players can thrive.

If you have ban you will get deadly arrack and not a Jhonnie Walker.

Good points to ponder over. First of all, I think BMTC has services to all the destinations pointed out in the Hindu report, as also the Whitefield-Marathalli route, but frequencies may be insufficient & reliability low, I guess.

These mini-buses & vans may also be charging lesser (& make up by excessively over-crowding their buses /vans & spending less on maintenance). Thus, some find it attractive & are prepared to take risk/s to save some money.

I see two possibilities :

1) Ban them altogether & carry out very strict enforcement to eliminate them & continue monitoring to ensure they do not operate + increase BMTC frequencies to all these areas.

This is unlikely to happen as enforcement is pathetic & may also be a difficult objective before mass-transits are in place, given that volumes of traffic are too high & traffic cops are busy & engaged in monitoring road traffic as a whole.

By increasing private participation of the kind seen on urban or semi-urban routes (ie. contract carriages with the resultant misuse & corruption), what is bound to happen is misuse on a much bigger scale with sub-standard services & this will lead to unsafe roads, similar to the blue line in delhi, mangalore or kochi, where road conditions are much worse.

Presently, since the scale of these operations is less, it hasn't posed too many risks here, yet.

2) Allow them to operate in semi-urban /peripheral areas, but again monitoring will have to be very tight to prevent misuse. Here again, this might be difficult in the prevailing conditions with too much traffic.

Either ways, I think we lose out - the key is to first make things more manageable, which is to reduce traffic to acceptable levels. The kind of formal licenses issued to bus operators in mangalore, kochi or even in chennai, despite the lesser no. of vehicles there, has not resulted in attracting the better, more responsible players who offer good services. The quality of service has remained pathetic & BMTC is better, though they need to improve on reach & reliability.

As regards comparisons with Al Capone, he did provide good quality liquor in chicago illegaly (importing it from Canada).

The ground reality here is quite different - & it appears that you only get arrack, at least that has been the story so far if you see the buses in mangalore & kochi !

BMTC can be good by itself, but it has some way to go to get there.

• thumb_up 38 Likes
• · login or register to post comments