COMMENTS

Mr.Murali - I had a few specific questions about the contents in the petition, just so we are clear.....

1) As I had previously mentioned, the efficiency of any road transport (be it publically owned or privately owned), when operating in mixed conditions can only be as good as traffic conditions will allow it to be, is'nt it ?

So, how will permitting private operators help if the roads are already choked with a lot of vehicles & when about 1300 vehicles getting added to the streets each day ? Private vehicles obviously cannot move faster than BMTC buses, & those that are trying to do this (such as the privately owned, yellow tagged tata sumos & indicas) are already causing havoc on the streets, is'nt it ?

2) You state - "The most simple and cost effective answer is efficient and well-connected public bus transport services. Today, however, this field is the monopoly of the government-owned BMTC. And, that is where the entire problem lies".

How will the introduction of private operators ensure efficient & well connected services ? Is'nt it a fact that private parties will only seek the high density routes & peak times & try to avoid the less frequented ones as profits would be their sole motivation, thus neglecting social obligations ?

3) You state - "BMTC does not have the managerial capacity to measure up to the task, nor can it be expected to gear itself up to do it in the near future, largely because of its monopoly status".

Why do you feel that it can not be expected to gear itself to the demands in the future, particularly after your mentioning this :

"there's no denying that BMTC has improved its services of recent, and is set to do even better with the roping in of the services of professionals like Prof Ashwin Mahesh of IIM, who has come up with innovations like the Big-10 services, etc".

4) You state - "The simple answer again is to facilitate the entry of reputed organized sector private players like TVS (TVS was once a bus service provider in the city of Madurai) into the fray".

What makes you believe that the reputed operators will make a foray into city bus services, particularly after the bad reputation they have after the blue-line mauling & killing pedestrians in Delhi ?

5) You mention - "Competition can only help improve BMTC further. The benefits of competition, as well-known, are evident in the many other fields, like telephony, airline services, banking, insurance, courier services, TV programming & broadcast, which were all opened out to competition over the last decade".

It is true that these sectors were opened to privatization & it has benefitted the public now, but privatization of these sectors did not immediately effect the common man's living & enjoyed patronization from the better off customers & eventually became competitive. City transport will effect the common man severely if costs rise up & are uncontrolled since his economic well being is highly dependent on cheap mobility, is'nt it ? So, how can we compare basic living necessities such as city transport to telephony, airlines, banking, insurance, courier & TV ?

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VKM Sir, Rithesh - Noted yr views.

London may have managed public buses with private operators well, but the situation here is quite different. Use of force for right of way & breaking rules with impunity is rampant even with the few private cab operators around. What will happen when public buses turn private & when profits are the motive for operators ?

It goes without saying that pedestrian safety would be severely compromised, much more than now, for sure. As it is, pedestrians account for 1/3rd of all road related deaths.

As VKM said, the answer is to provide exclusive infrastructure for public street-based transport, even if street space is reduced for private vehicles. Once such infrastructure is in place, private operators can be given licenses to operate on specific routes or areas, with well structured contracts to maximize benefits for the public - only one operator per area to remove competition amongst them within the same routes that would jeopardize safety of users.

If this were done, the performance of street-based PT will drastically improve & many innovations can also be put in place much more easily, such as accurate announcement of arrival times for buses, etc using DGPS.

As Rithesh mentioned, such capability can only happen if the umbrella agency, the BMLTA is made the lead authority to oversee developments & for co-ordination, as recommended by National Urban Transport Policy. Currently, they remain on paper, appointed merely out of compulsion.

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Let me just say, BMTC and the Govt will be missing a golden opportunity to bring name and fame to themselves by moving operations to private providers and stepping back to become regulators. It is best they work out an effective framework to outsource the running of bus and related services.

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Ritesh avare'

After making out the petition, I had requested my niece to affix the first signature, since she had been the one to do so on an earlier petition, which eventually went on to collect over 3,000 signatures. But, since she was in the midst of some travel and could not pay full attention to it, she landed up adding a 'no', meaning 'no additional comments', which however anybody viewing the petition can misconstrue as expressing dissent. She later explained to me that, as she understood it, the very act of affixing one's name was an endorsement.

Perhaps, I should have anticipated this problem, and changed the settings accordingly.

You'll notice that the people who have put a 'no' have not added any further comment, as compared to the ones who have put a 'yes'. I would therefore choose to interpret these no's also as 'no additional comments' like in the case of my niece.

Muralidhar Rao

PS: I have not asked for privatisation of BMTC. I have asked for competition. So, when are you signing the petition?:)))

As to the points raised by you and Naveen, I shall respond separately.

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Dear All

Like Naveen, my question to all concerned is WHERE IS THE ROAD TO HAVE MORE PRIVATE VEHICLES as an alternative mode of travelling with competence? Management of existing infrastructure is the means to our end.

I still remember how Mr.Devraj Urs took bold decision to enact legislation and stop misuse of contract carriage licenses by private operators and took over all those private vehicles and helped the State transport system to acquire buses to augment public transport infrastructure, of course, by paying compensation to the owners of confiscated buses.

Second instance: How Indira Gandhi took a bold decision to nationalise private banks to stem the rot created by private banking and playing with public money? Our money is safe now.

Moral: Privatisation may not be the solution for the ills of transport sector. Infrastructure is the bane of our exploding urban centers coupled with influx of floating population. 

Let us hybernate on this issue

-Vasanthkumar Mysoremath  

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