KOLAR CITY BUS SERVICE EVALUATION REPORT DIRECTORATE OF URBAN LAND TRANSPORT URBAN DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT Kolar City Bus Service Evaluation Report 2013 Table of Contents 1.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 2 1.2 Kolar City ................................................................................................................................. 3 1.3 Demographics of Kolar City ..................................................................................................... 3 1.4 Vehicular composition in Kolar ............................................................................................... 4 1.5 Kolar city Bus service............................................................................................................... 4 2.1 PERFORMANCE EVALUATION ..................................................................................................... 6 2.1 Public transport facilities – Kolar City ..................................................................................... 6 2.1.1 Presence of organized public transport system in urban area (%) .................................. 6 2.1.2 Extent of supply availability of public transport ............................................................. 7 2.1.3 Service coverage of public transport in the city .............................................................. 7 2.1.4 % of fleet as per Urban bus specification ........................................................................ 8 2.1.5 Level of comfort in public transport ............................................................................... 8 2.1.6 Average waiting time for public transport users (mins) .................................................. 8 2.2 Financial Sustainability of public transport - Kolar ................................................................. 9 2.2.1 Extent of Non fare Revenue (%) ..................................................................................... 9 2.2.2 Staff /bus ratio ................................................................................................................. 9 2.2.3 Operating Ratio ............................................................................................................... 9 2.3 Facts and Findings – Route Wise........................................................................................... 10 2.3.1 Route 301/302/303/304 ................................................................................................. 10 2.3.2 Route 305/306AB ......................................................................................................... 12 2.3.3 Route 307/308 ............................................................................................................... 13 2.3.4 Route 309/310 ............................................................................................................... 15 3.1 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................. 17 EVALUATION OF CITY BUS SERVICE (Kolar) ..................................................................................... 0 Directorate of Urban Land Transport 1 Kolar City Bus Service Evaluation Report 2013 1.1 Introduction Urbanization in India has never been as rapid as it is in the recent times. The urban population in India is currently growing at around 2.3 per cent per annum. The tier II and III cities are growing very fast and in the coming 20 years would contribute enormously to the city population. Proper urban transportation system in most of the cities has been absent, leading to dependence on personalized vehicles and also on IPTs. The problem of pollution, safety and inefficiency have reached an alarming level in most of the major cities in India due to the unabated growth of population - both people and motor vehicles. Thus, there is an immediate need to improve the performance of bus system to retain the passengers and discourage the use of private vehicles. One of the critical challenges most small towns and medium-sized cites face is the lack of a dedicated city transport service. Due to which, people have to rely on Para transit and personalized modes of transport. Public Transport can operate over existing roadway facilities with minimum construction cost, offer transit services at a much lower cost per passenger. Furthermore, buses provide the greatest flexibility in service routes to meet the current transport demand. Thus, improved performance of urban bus service could essentially contribute to improved environmental conditions in medium sized cities by shifting mobility from private modes towards more efficient environmental-friendly and safer travel modes. However, improvement in City bus system is not an easy task due to the fact that city bus systems are affected by socio-economic, financial, environmental, and political factors along with technological factors and physical problems. Performance of a bus system is affected by several criteria, such as increase in the number of buses, bus stops, and passengers, and changes along roadways and in land uses. Therefore, the various issues causing inefficient operation of bus services needs to be identified and also appropriate techniques/measures should be formulated to resolve these issues. In this regard, The Government of Karnataka created the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) under the Urban Development Department to integrate and coordinate all land transport matter in the State. Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT), Government of Karnataka, took up the initiative of supporting the introduction of city bus services in Tier II cities. As a part of this initiative Performance evaluation was conducted for the newly introduced City Bus Service partly funded from State Urban Transport Fund through DULT for Kolar City. This study identifies some of the important issues related with the performance of newly introduced bus system in Kolar and also suggests some solutions for improvement in the performance of the City bus system. Rapidly rising operating cost in the City bus services have placed increasing emphasis on improved management and better utilization of existing facilities. Directorate of Urban Land Transport 2 Kolar City Bus Service Evaluation Report 2013 It is required to evaluate how well the existing city bus system is providing services to the public. Therefore, new techniques to assist the evaluation of performance of City bus services are needed. It is expected that this study will be useful to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of bus system in urban area. 1.2 Kolar City Kolar town, headquarters of Kolar district and one of the 29 districts of Karnataka bordering the neighboring states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, benefits economically due to its proximity to the State capital – Bangalore city. The national 2011 census reported the town’s population as 138,553. The town plays an important economic role since it is one of the major silk cocoon markets and silk reeling centers of the state, in addition to being a major supplier of milk and vegetables to Bangalore city. The district is bounded by the Bangalore Rural district in the west Chikballapur district in the north, Chittoor District of Andhra Pradesh in the east and on the south by Krishnagiri and Vellore district of Tamil Nadu. It is located at a distance of about 70 kilometers from Bangalore and 32 kilometers from Kolar Gold Fields. The nearest railway junction is Bangarpet at a distance of about 15km. It is situated on the Bengaluru - Chennai National Highway-4. Kolar is also the gateway for Tirumala Via National Highway 4. 1.3 Demographics of Kolar City The city had a population of 138553 during the 2011 census. With the City Municipal Council (CMC) jurisdiction of 26.56 sq. km, the population was 5216 persons per square kilometer. As per 2011 census Kolar district had a total population of 1540231 with an area of 4012 sq. km, the population density was 384 persons per sq. km. Figure 1 illustrates the growth of population in Kolar District from 1901 to 2011 based on Census of India statistics. Directorate of Urban Land Transport 3 Kolar City Bus Service Evaluation Report 2013 Figure 1: Population Trend 1.4 Vehicular composition in Kolar A cursory look at the status of vehicle composition in Kolar is very alarming. Table 1 illustrates the automobile composition in the city as per the recent statistics available from the Regional Transport Office. It can be seen that while the vehicular population in the city stood at 65,849 of which 46,015 came from motorcycles alone. Table 1: Vehicular Growth No. of Vehicle Type Vehicles Two wheelers 46,015 Cars & Jeeps 4,036 Cabs 265 Auto-Rickshaw 3,844 Omni buses 150 Tractors & Trailers 7,046 Goods vehicles 2,796 Private buses - Others 1,650 Total 65,849 1.5 Kolar city Bus service The Government of Karnataka created the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) under the Urban Development Department to integrate and coordinate all land transport matter in the State. Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT), Government of Karnataka, took up the initiative of supporting the introduction of city bus services in Tier II cities. Directorate of Urban Land Transport 4 Kolar City Bus Service Evaluation Report 2013 In this regard, a proposal for the induction of 15 buses were proposed by Karnataka state Road