PROMOTING LOW-CARBON TRANSPORT IN INDIA Low-Carbon Mobility in India and the Challenges of Social Inclusion Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Case Studies in India Authors: Darshini Mahadevia Centre for Urban Equity and Faculty of Planning and Public Policy, CEPT University, Ahmedabad Rutul Joshi Centre for Urban Equity, and Faculty of Planning and Public Policy, CEPT University, Ahmedabad Abhijit Datey Centre for Urban Equity, CEPT University, Ahmedabad January 2013 UNEP Risø Centre on Energy, Climate and Sustainable Development Technical University of Denmark This publication is part of the ‘Promoting Low-carbon Transport in India’ project ISBN: 978-87-92706-77-5 Design and production: Magnum Custom Publishing New Delhi, India [email protected] Photo acknowledgement: All photographs are taken by the Centre for Urban Equity except where mentioned. Disclaimer: The findings, suggestions and conclusions presented in the case study are entirely those of the authors and should not be attributed in any manner to UNEP Risø Centre or the United Nations Environment Program, nor to the institutions of individual authors. Acknowlegements This research would not have been possible without the contributions of the research team members from the Centre for Urban Equity (CUE), CEPT University. Aseem Mishra, Kaushal Jaju, Suchita Vyas, Vishal Darji, Tejas Patel and Tejal Patel assisted in undertaking the survey in slums and the BRTS users in Ahmedabad. Vishal Darji and Tejas Patel assisted in the study of footpaths and bicycle tracks along the BRTS corridor in Ahmedabad. The Masters of Planning interns Paresh Chhajed, Pawan Bang and Priyanka Bhandari assisted in the study of BRTS in other cities of India. We would also like to acknowledge and express our gratitude to Prof. Geetam Tiwari and Ms. Deepti Jain of TRIPPS, IIT Delhi for inputs at various times on the BRTS in general and user survey in particular. Prof. Tiwari has generously shared TRIPP’s research reports with us for which we are grateful to her. There are many who have given us their time in discussing the city-level issues and we would like to thank them; Mr. Ashok Srinivas, Mr. Ranjit Gadgil and Mr. Sujit Patwardhan of Parisar, Pune; Prashant Bachu of Embarq, Indore; Mr. Samir Kumar Sharma, Asst. Vice President, Transport Planning, DIMTS, Delhi. Jorge Rogat gets our thanks for reviewing the first draft of this report and UNEP Risø Centre and Dr. Subash Dhar for their support for bringing out this report in the final form. Lastly, we take full responsibility for any lacunae and the views expressed in this report. The views expressed here are those of the authors and not of their institution. iii Contents Acknowledgements iii List of Tables and Figures viii Abbreviations xiii 1. Introduction–Sustainability, Equity and Accessibility Issues in Urban Transport 1 1.1 Background to the study 1 1.2 Sustainability concept in urban transport 2 1.3 Concept of accessibility and its various dimensions 4 1.4 Evidences of transport expenditure from Indian cities 6 1.5 Travel behaviour of the poor in Indian cities 8 1.6 Summarising transport and equity issues 11 1.7 Research framework and approach 13 2. Global Debates on BRT 21 2.1 The advent of BRT 21 2.2 A history of bus rapid transit systems 21 2.3 Types of BRTS 23 2.4 Conclusion 26 3. BRTS in the Indian Context 29 3.1 The urban transport situation in India 29 3.2 Public transport in India 30 3.3 The national policy context for low-carbon mobility 30 v 3.4 BRT projects in India 32 3.5 Delhi BRTS 33 3.6 Pune HCBS 47 3.7 Jaipur BRTS 57 3.8 Indore BRTS 62 3.9 Conclusion – The state of BRT projects in selected cities 64 4. Janmarg: Ahmedabad’s Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) 67 4.1 The planning context 67 4.2 Transport characteristics 68 4.3 Janmarg: The status of the BRT project 71 4.4 Janmarg: An assessment 78 4.5 Janmarg: Scope of improvements 82 4.6 Conclusion 85 5. BRTS Users Survey – Ahmedabad 87 5.1 User profile 87 5.2 Trip purpose 89 5.3 Physical access to BRTS 90 5.4 BRTS trip characteristics 93 5.5 Impact of BRTS 99 5.6 Conclusion 101 6. Travel Characteristics of the Urban Poor in Ahmedabad: Towards Inclusive Mobility 103 6.1 Introduction 103 6.2 Sample description 103 6.3 Travel characteristics of the urban poor 106 6.4 Impact of relocations on travel patterns of the poor 112 6.5 Conclusion – Inclusive transport system? 115 vi 7. Progress of Low-carbon Mobility and the Challenges of Social Inclusion 117 7.1 Public transport paradigm 117 7.2 The Bus Rapid Transit debate 118 7.3 The city-level issues 121 7.4 The case of Ahmedabad – Users and non-users of the BRTS 123 References 126 Annexures 133 vii List of Tables and Figures List of Tables Table 1.1 Monthly per capita consumption expenditure (MPCE) (MRP2) distribution (2004-05 & 2009-10) 6 Table 1.2 Expenditure pattern of bottom 40% and top 20% of urban population, 2004-05 and 2009-10 7 Table 1.3 Station selection for survey and sample distribution 17 Table 1.4 Sample for transport demand survey of urban poor 20 Table 2.1 BRTS projects added in the year 2010 23 Table 3.1 Modal share in cities of India (2007) 29 Table 3.2 Approved BRTS projects under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) 32 Table 3.3 Modal share of passenger trips in Delhi (2001) 36 Table 3.4 Modal shares of journey to work by low income households in Delhi (1999) 37 Table 3.5 Phase-wise number and length of corridor 40 Table 3.6 Scenarios and their effect on public transport share 51 Table 3.7 BRT projects in Pune funded under JnNURM 51 Table 3.8 Modal share, 2009 58 Table 3.9 Package-wise details of Jaipur BRTS 59 Table 3.10 Distribution of road section at different ROWs 61 Table 3.11 Characteristics of the BRT systems of the selected cities 64 Table 4.1 City-level modal split, Ahmedabad 71 Table 4.2 Distribution of road section at different ROWs in BRT Phase-I 73 Table 4.3 Distribution of road section at different ROWs in BRT Phase-II 75 Table 4.4 Provision of footpaths and bicycle tracks along Janmarg corridor 79 Table 4.5 Percentage of obstructed bicycle tracks and footpaths along Janmarg corridor 80 Table 5.1 Income profile and sex ratio of BRT users, Ahmedabad 87 viii Table 5.2 Age profile of BRT users, Ahmedabad 88 Table 5.3 Percentage of workers among BRT users by sex, Ahmedabad 88 Table 5.4 Employment profile of BRT users by sex, Ahmedabad 89 Table 5.5 BRT trip purpose 89 Table 5.6 Trip purpose by household income, Ahmedabad 90 Table 5.7 Distribution by trip purpose for each age group, Ahmedabad 90 Table 5.8 Mode used for reaching BRT by sex, Ahmedabad 91 Table 5.9 Frequency distribution of distance travelled to reach BRTS station, Ahmedabad 91 Table 5.10 Distance travelled to reach BRTS station by income groups, Ahmedabad 92 Table 5.11 Mode used to reach destination from the BRT station, Ahmedabad 92 Table 5.12 Frequency distribution of distance travelled to destination from BRTS station, Ahmedabad 93 Table 5.13 Distance travelled to reach destination from BRT station by income groups, Ahmedabad 93 Table 5.14 Frequency distribution of distance (in km) travelled by BRT, Ahmedabad 94 Table 5.15 Frequency distribution of per-trip BRT expenditure (`), Ahmedabad 94 Table 5.16 Frequency distribution of total trip length, Ahmedabad 95 Table 5.17 Frequency distribution of total trip cost (`), Ahmedabad 95 Table 5.18 Distribution of households of different income groups by total trip length by sex, Ahmedabad 96 Table 5.19 Average trip length (km) by income groups, Ahmedabad 96 Table 5.20 Percentage of income spent on transport for different income groups, Ahmedabad 97 Table 5.21 Distribution of users by proportion of their total trip by BRTS for different income groups, Ahmedabad 97 Table 5.22 Mode taken to reach BRTS by income groups, Ahmedabad 98 Table 5.23 Proportion of BRTS cost in the total trip cost, Ahmedabad 98 Table 5.24 Frequency of BRT use per month, Ahmedabad 98 Table 5.25 Mode used prior to BRTS 99 Table 5.26 Savings in trip cost due to BRTS, Ahmedabad 100 Table 5.27 Details of BRT-induced trips, Ahmedabad 100 ix Table 6.1 Sample description by age, sex and education level, Ahmedabad 104 Table 6.2 Employment status by age and sex, Ahmedabad 104 Table 6.3 Nature of employment, Ahmedabad (%) 105 Table 6.4 Modal split by sex, Ahmedabad 106 Table 6.5 City-level modal split, Ahmedabad 106 Table 6.6 Modal split by sex (after distributing multiple mode trips), Ahmedabad 107 Table 6.7 Trip distance distribution (%), Ahmedabad 108 Table 6.8 Mode-wise average trip length (km), Ahmedabad 108 Table 6.9 Distribution of persons (%) by per trip expenses, by sex, Ahmedabad 109 Table 6.10 Trip purpose by modal share, Ahmedabad (%) 110 Table 6.11 Per capita income groups by modal share, Ahmedabad (%) 110 Table 6.12 Per capita income groups by trip distance, Ahmedabad (%) 111 Table 6.13 Modal split by different geographic locations of slums, Ahmedabad (%) 112 Table 6.14 Average distance travelled by different modes, by sex and geographic locations (km) 113 Table 6.15 Distribution of persons by per trip expenditure, by sex and geographic location, Ahmedabad 113 Table 6.16 Distribution of trips by distances, by sex and geographic location, Ahmedabad (km) 114 Table 6.17 Mode share in settlements located next to BRT corridor, Ahmedabad (%) 114 List of Figures Figure 1.1 Schematic links of accessibility and poverty 10 Figure 1.2 Janmarg’s operational route and bus stations 16 Figure 3.1 Road network map of Delhi 35 Figure 3.2 Different types of buses using the BRTS corridor 38 Figure 3.3 Cross-section of road – before and after the BRTS corridor 38 Figure 3.4 (Left) Central median corridor Pilot – A.