Traffic congestion is a nightmare in most urban cities in India, with the increasing number of private vehicles – including app-based taxi services – compounding the already grave situation on the road. But public transport systems are hampered by operational lapses, low frequency and lack of last-mile connectivity. 

To deal with this, cities are experimenting with the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) in hope of alleviating the situation and getting more people to switch to public transport. After being in cold storage for almost a decade, Chennai’s BRTS project is finally making headway with the detailed project report (DPR) entering the final stages and is scheduled to be completed over the next three months. 

The proposal is for a system that stretches to 265km, with seven corridors at a total length of 120 km the first phase. The key feature in this system is the dedicated corridor in the middle of the road, which would be separated from other lanes with a physical barrier. This would ensure that the buses need not compete with other vehicles on the road, which would help reduce transit time. For instance, a trip on an MTC bus on T-Nagar to Thiruverkadu route (27C) takes about 65-80 minutes to cover the distance, around 16km, during peak hours. 

“As the BRTS will run on a dedicated corridor, the speed will be constant throughout the journey. This will reduce the travel time to a fixed 50 minutes, irrespective of the traffic conditions,” said a source from the project consultant. 

With over five million commuters using MTC buses every day, that reveals the potential to save a lot of man-hours. Also, added the source, BRTS and MTC buses would ply on this corridor to ensure good frequency, resulting in lesser waiting time. Researchers from Institute for Transportation & Development Policy (ITDP), which prepared a feasibility study way back in 2011, said BRTS can fill the existing gaps and improve suburban connectivity. 

“The integration designs involve incorporating a bus stop or terminal at suburban train and Metro rail stations, and MTC depots. This will enable passengers to easily get on and off the bus. Off-board fare collection has also been proposed,” said a researcher, adding that a second round of public consultation would soon follow.

 Unlike the greenfield projects like Metro rail, BRTS is designed to be accommodated within the existing infrastructure. This would eliminate the most cumbersome and complex issue in undertaking infrastructure projects – land acquisition. 

Also, BRTS can be implemented rapidly, and at a lower cost. Feasibility studies show that setting up elevated Metro rail systems costs Rs 150-250 crores per km, while it is only Rs 12-18 crore per km for BRTS with a carrying capacity of 6,000-45,000 passengers per hour. 

“The Chennai Metro is not a dense network; with only two corridors, it cannot cover the entire city even after the completion of the project. In comparison, bus networks have the advantage of wider spread.

Where BRTS also scores is the much lower initial investment and can play a vital role in plugging the existing transit gaps, especially in places where there is no Metro coverage,” pointed out Gitakrishnan Ramadurai, assistant professor, Civil Engineering Department at the Indian Institute of Technology – Madras. 

The solution to city’s unending traffic snarls is to get more people to switch to public transport from private vehicles including app-based services like Ola and Uber. 

There, BRTS can play a major role by providing a rapid transit service like that of a Metro, but without the hassle of transfers – navigating stairways, corridors and multiple platforms. All this, at a cost only as much as that of the MTC bus service. 

“As fare discussions and business plan designs are under process, the idea is to keep the pricing on par with that of the MTC service. But, this will be confirmed after the business plans and other details are finalised,” added the source from ITDP.

BRTS can reduce travel time by millions of hours for commuters 

BRTS can bring down the overall vehicle kilometres travelled (VKT) by shifting commuters to high-capacity buses that can carry up to 160 passengers

Improved connectivity: The Metro rail, MRTS and suburban rail systems are widely spaced and rather disjointed networks. BRT can knit them tightly into a public transport network that is easily accessible to all.

Exclusive lanes The exclusive lanes for BRTS will be in the middle of the road, to be separated from the rest of the traffic by a physical barrier 

Like the Metro rails, BRT design ensures that commuters can get in and out of a bus without having to climb steps 

Use of an automatic vehicle tracking system provides real-time information to commuters and system managers 

In BRTS, terminals are the most important transfer point. They are normally located at the end of each corridor and provide important transfers between BRT and MTC bus lines serving surrounding areas. The design of the interchange facility should minimise both customer and vehicle movements to the extent possible. 

Off-board fare collection: 

Electronic ticketing outside the bus, called off-board fare collection, enhances convenience, besides curbing revenue leakages and increasing system speed

Cities like Hong Kong and Singapore have shown the way in reducing private vehicles on the road by setting up advanced public transport systems – 90% of all motorised trips in Hong Kong are by public transport, while it is 63% in Singapore. Bus network covers 50% of public transport trips in Hong Kong, and 52% in Singapore.

Ahmedabad was the first Indian city to launch a full-fledged BRT system, with commercial operation starting from October 2009. The network has grown to 97km, up from the initial 12 kms. There are 157 bus stations and a 250-bus fleet (including 184 air-conditioned buses) that carries 1,50,000 passengers per day in 2016 from 18,000 passengers in 2009. The daily collection increased to Rs. 19,24,678 per day from Rs 73,693 in 2009.

 

In Pune Metropolitan Region, the Rainbow BRT corridor that was launched in 2015 reportedly help reduce transit time by 10-15 minutes. Now, additional corridors are coming up in Pune-Pimpri-Chinchwad sector, and once completed, the Rainbow network would be more than 90 km, estimated to serve more than 7 lakh commuters.