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The Kochi connection
Written By murali772 - 20 January, 2011
Bangalore Bus Citizen Reports Transportation public transport governance
I was in Kochi on Monday, the 17th Jan. After I finished the personal work that I had gone there for, I called up Mr Vivek Mathai of Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR), the people who had organised the Bus Day in Kochi on Dec 18th. Between us, we fixed up to meet next morning at 10 AM in their office.
Since I was going to be meeting the people who had organised the Bus Day, I myself chose to take the bus, in spite of the two cars being readily available to me at my brother's home on Diwan's Road, where I was residing (And, this was not the first time I was taking the bus in Kochi. I have always maintained that the Kochi bus services were good, and have readily availed them whenever an occasion arose - check this). I walked up to Govt Girls High School stop, a distance of some 500 M, and, immediately on reaching the place, I got a bus. And, even though it was the peak hour of 9.30 in the morning, the bus was not too badly crowded (though I had to stand), the frequency of services being so good.
The CPPR office is located at Elamkulam, some 5 Km up Sahodaran Ayyappan road from where I caught the bus, for which the conductor gave me a ticket for Rs 4, along with the change for the Rs 10 note that I had proferred. On reaching the Valanjambalam junction, some 200 M from where I got on, the bus got held up for close to 10 minutes. Just beyond the junction is the South over-bridge, and it being not wide enough to manage the present day rush-hour traffic, the police was manually turning into into a 'one-way at a time' road, allowing more time for in-coming traffic in the mornings, and outgoing traffic in the evenings, which was fair enough. But, the curious part was that, when opening up for the up-traffic, they were first allowing all the private vehicles (cars and two-wheelers) to go, only after which were they allowing the buses to move.
The bus eventually moved on to the next stop, viz Manorama junction, just beyond the over-bridge. Many people got off there, and I managed to get a seat, though, the bus filled up once again with the people boarding. Now, if anyone thought what happened at the earlier junction was curious, what followed at the next junction, a half km away, was nothing short of shocking. A 100M stretch beyind this junction is a bit narrow, and consequently, it has been turned into a 'car priority lane' (for upward traffic only) during peak hours, with the buses having to take a 300M detour to join back at the Kadavanthra junction, beyond the narrow stretch. So, the 'priority lane' idea, that we are trying to promote in Namma Bengaluru, is already in practice in Kochi, but with a reversal of priorities. And, the irony of it all is that it is happening in Marxist dominated Kerala. (Talking about this later, Vivek stated that similar is the case at the Kacheripadi junction on the other main artery, linking the inner city to the National Highway)
The next stop was at Elamkulam, where I got off, and with the help of directions from Vivek, over phone, I walked up to their CPPR office. The notable thing here again was the poor state of the foot-paths (or, whatever, there was of it), a feature shared with Namma Bengaluru, in spite of the larger percentage of trips made using buses here (and, consequently, by walk).
CPPR is headed by Mr Dhanuraj, a native of Kochi, who, after mastering in Physics at IISc, Bangalore, worked in the IT field for a while, switching then to Economics, and later doing an MBA. During the over one hour discussions we had, we re-discovered the smallness of the world, with our knowing many people in common, as also the like-mindedness in our approaches to a more sustainable life-style, particularly in cities. They are very conscious of a negative tag the term NGO generally carries, and consequently, they have deliberately taken on the form of a company, sustaining their activities through a lot of out-sourced research work, and field studies, simultaneously.
The 'bus day' event organised by CPPR was quite a success, with the support from the private operators being pretty good, though there wasn't that much of enthusiasm from the govt-owned KSRTC (K here standing for Kerala). The KSRTC has come on the scene recently, firstly with a few AC buses (VOLVO) linking the airport (22 km from the city), followed by a few more along the main arteries, and now by non-AC buses (brand new), termed 'Tiru-Kochi'. The AC buses appear to be well patronised, though frequency of services is a bit of a problem. The Tiru-Kochi services, which charge the same rate as the private buses, appear headed the namma 356 way (check this), bunched together and near empty ( I was trailing two of them, one behind the other, on a busy stretch, during the peak hour), with the crew more interested in completing the tasks assigned, unlike their private sector counterparts, who have a stake in patronising custom.
The bane of the bus services (privately owned) in Kochi is very plainly on account of the government's license-permit raaj, which does not allow for entry of big players. If a more liberal regime is put in place, Kochi can perhaps provide a model for the rest of the country, since the competitive culture is prevailing there already.
After a gap of nearly 33 years, the Kochi Corporation has recently elected a Congress Council, and Mr Dhanuraj was hoping to set up a dialogue between the Council and a set of active citizens that he is in regular touch with. The idea of PRAJA as the platform of the upper house quite interested him, and he will be exploring the possibility of setting up something similar in Kochi. I expressed fullest support from PRAJA in all their endeavours.
Muralidhar Rao
PS: Mr Vivek Mathai is 2nd from left, and Mr Dhanuraj is 4th from left resply in the picture
COMMENTS
amithpallavoor - 30 October, 2014 - 11:54
This post has a bit of nostalgia from my school and college days as far as I am concerned.
I visited Kochi after a gap of 14 years in 2013 and was surprised to see the kind of construction that has come up there. The numerous river islands in Aluva are full of apartments.
Kerala is a perfect example of crony socialism and it has perfected the art of running a state based on the License Raj Model.
Sadly regulation is restricted to running of buses and there is no regulation as far as protection of enviornment is concerned.
the sector needs professional handling
murali772 - 1 August, 2015 - 07:38
Though the routes for the Kudumbashree women bus service which will be launched by the Kochi Corporation are yet to be finalised, there is a strong demand from the civic administrators that the buses should be pressed into service along the major byroads of the city where the frequency of bus services is low. However, the decision to save Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) by the State Government resulting in the non-issuance of fresh permits is the major hindrance that the civic body will have to overcome if it wants to launch services through the roads having no bus connectivity.
- - - “Only three buses are available. So, it will be a wise decision if we commence short trip services through byroads rather than going for long distance routes. If we select long distance routes, we will be able to conduct only two or three services a day. That is why we are demanding circular trips covering the byroads with no bus connectivity,” said a Corporation official.
The Urban Poverty Alleviation Department (UPAD) of Kochi Corporation is implementing the project. According to a top Corporation official, initially, there will be male staff in buses to assist women employees. Later, the service will be exclusively owned and operated by women. The cost for a bus is around Rs 17 lakh.
For the full text of the report in the New Indian Express, click here.
The entire approach reeks of pseudo-Socialism, that Kerala largely remains steeped in, exemplified by the handling of the project itself by the Urban Poverty Alleviation Department (UPAD) of Kochi Corporation. This is even as the city is spending thousands of crores on the (ill-conceived, in my opinion - check my post of 27/06, scrolling above) Metro, perhaps with the hope of leap-frogging to Dubai level of ultra-capitalistic development, and the gulf-connected citizens are splurging tons of money on gold, real estate, silk, liquor (now controlled), and what have you. Can't there be some kind of a mid-path between the two extremes?
Kochi had fairly good bus services, all in the private sector, from long. The short-comings that existed were largely on account of the government's licence-permit raaj. Somewhere along, the government johnnies decided that they were missing out on the "opportunities" enjoyed by their counterparts in Karnataka and other states, and decided to tighten the raaj for the private players, to the extent of almost choking them out, and simultaneously expand the state-run (Kerala SRTC) operations, like Tiru-Kochi services, etc. JnNURM became a handy tool for the purpose. But, government services remained government services, rather dis-services, quite like the Malayalam saying which states that a "dog's tail cannot ever be straightened out", and deteriorated to an extent where the Kerala High Court was compelled to suggest to the Kerala SRTC to consider closing down (check here), and leave the job to the private sector.
Now, public bus transport services are an important infrastructure area, having a huge impact on the economic, educational, social, and in fact all activities of the cities, states, and the country, and therefore needs professional handling, which a Kudumbashree kind of set up (a women's self-help group) is not quite capable of, as much as even the state, as has been repeatedly proved across the country. It's time the job is left to professional private players, even as the government ensures institution of effective regulatory bodies to oversee the goings on.
towards modern as well as sustainable urban development
murali772 - 4 August, 2015 - 07:11
In response to a mail I had sent around, linking my post of 1st Aug (scroll above), I received the following comment from a lady resident of Kochi:
I would like to bring a few things to your attention regarding the DEMU service...The very next day after inauguration the AC coaches and a few new compartments were taken away to some other states and they were replaced by old coaches which were neither cleaned nor maintained properly. With the result, middle class travellers could never think of using it...It never maintained time and hence least dependable....
Where as Metro... we are all looking forward to it..because
1. It could take us to city within 20 minutes which now is taking almost an hour
2. Senior citizens find it difficult to drive in the city and drivers are not available
3. Much cheaper than engaging taxies...
4. Not only senior citizens ,all working women look forward to a decent mode of transportation, because now they are depending on the auto riksha drivers who are infamous for their rudeness...
5. The roads have now become broader and more spacious wherever the pillar has been completed
6.There are 2or 3 tier parking spaces in all the metro railway stations
7. When we went to Delhi this February we found out how convenient, safe ,quick and economical the Metro truly was....
So Metro is not a white elephant , but going to be a giant leap towards a Modern Kochi....
Since, I expect the above will be the opinion of many a resident of Kochi too, I thought I'll put down my response here.
In my post, I had mentioned "The argument may be that, as cities grow, the benefits will eventually show up - But, I am not quite sure that's how cities should be planned, particularly when there are competing demands, perhaps far more worthy, for the total quantum of revenue (and, other forms of funds) available at a given time", which forms my key argument against the project.
Apparently, the DEMU operations are a trial run, as much as the ones being launched in Bengaluru, to Ramnagaram and other townships around the city (check here), which hopefully will evolve into full-fledged Commuter Rail services, soon (perhaps, even before Kochi Metro gets into operation). And, again, if these are operated on a PPP model, as they should be (check here, as to the why of it), you'll have the same level of comforts as in a Metro operation, but for a much lower fare, affordable not just to the middle class, but even the aamest of aam-aadmi.
Yes, Delhi, Bengaluru, etc have, over the years, got so densified that Metro has become inevitable. But, I dare say that, had the government instituted a professionally run Commuter Rail system (more or less on this basis) well in time, the densification of these cities could perhaps have been avoided, and along-with that, the Metro too, and therewith the ever-galloping cost of living. The need essentially is for a modern, as much as sustainable and affordable Kochi, as much as any other city.
Also, equally important is the role of bus services, if we want to move along these lines. And, that's where we need professional players, and not just the government-run KSRTC/ Tiru-Kochi, Kudumabashree kind of operations, as brought out here (though this specific petition pertains to Bengaluru, it holds equally valid for other cities and towns too).
murali772 - 30 January, 2018 - 10:34
just follow the High Court's advice, Sir
murali772 - 29 October, 2014 - 11:57
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