Condition of city bus service (Starbus) in Nagpur city

Best city with worst public transport

(Published in 'The Hitavada' on March 8, 2013)

Staff Reporter

How can a city that cannot provide proper parking place and space to the fleet of local buses boast of having the best public transport system? How can a city claim to have best public transport with more than 50% of its local buses out of commission? How can a city feel proud of its public transport system when none of the thousands of auto-rickshaws plies and charges the commuters as per ‘meter’? How can a city boast of best public transport in the country when its administration has made no efforts to help cycle-rickshaw-pullers to switch over to mechanised rickshaws? How can a city assert that it owns the best public transport system when its political and bureaucratic leaderships have given no thought whatsoever to this major service they are mandated to provide?

All these questions form the ‘The Hitavada’ Reality Check as it puts Nagpur’s public transport system under a non-partisan scanner. And realistically, all these questions have only one common answer: NO.

Let us begin the Reality Check with local buses.

Previously, it was Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC). Now, it is Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC)-backed city bus service operator -- Vansh Nimay Infraprojects Limited (VNIL). One may claim that there has been a definite increase in number of commuters using city bus service, but has that brought about a change in the quality of the service? Unfortunately, the answer is a big ‘NO’.

In fact, city bus service in Nagpur has never been consistent. First, it was MSRTC that threatened to withdraw the service citing losses as the main reason. This created room for NMC to run the service by roping in a private player. Central Government’s changed norms regarding public transport in areas of urban local bodies selected under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) proved a great help. With buses received from the Centre, NMC entered into an agreement with VNIL to operate city bus service. As per the agreement, NMC would get Rs 3,700 per bus per month as royalty. A fleet of new low-floor buses, increased number of frequency, new routes, and brand new service evoked a very good response from Nagpurians. Within almost no time, Starbus service (as the city bus service is popularly known after the brand of buses) became the most widely used mode of public transport in the city.

However, as time passed, condition of buses deteriorated. Poor maintenance resulted in broken seats, broken handles, damaged wind-shields, mostly non-working digital signs, unclean and unhygienic passenger areas, non-rolling window panes. Of course, these are only major problems commuters have to put up with. ‘Starbus’ is driven by ill-trained persons, posing threat to plying of other vehicles and Nagpurians on roads. In fact, several incidents of death-dance by Starbus have been reported, and it caused a natural public outrage. Ill-trained drivers jump the traffic signals in various parts of the city umpteen times in a day. At many places with heavy traffic throughout the day, it is very difficult for these drivers to manoeuvre wide buses safely. For commuters, another problem is lack of proper waiting shelters, especially in Sitabuldi-Maharajbagh area.

To add to this, game of political upmanship derailed the public transport in the city from the path of evolution to mud of controversies. May it be Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which leads ruling alliance in NMC, or Congress that is in Opposition, both have got engaged in round of allegations and counter-allegations just to derive political mileage out of it. None of them gave a serious thought to finding solutions to the problems and making the city bus service operator accountable. As most of the people, who use the service, belong to the class of students, senior citizens, women, employees in Government and private establishments, the political leaders were least bothered. None of them, either from the Ruling or the Opposition side, made it a point to travel in the buses at regular intervals and get to know the problems from commuters first-hand.

As a result, while the commuters faced problems, city fathers were busy settling personal political scores against each others. The Opposition side accused the Ruling alliance of corruption in city bus service operation, but only ahead of NMC election. After the election, the issue of alleged irregularities simply died down, strengthening the belief that both the sides were interested only in making political gains from the issue, and thus, neglecting the aspect of making the Orange City’s public transport system the best in the country.

As per the official data, NMC received 230 buses under JnNURM and operator firm VNIL purchased 240 buses. Of these 470 buses, 60 rear-engine buses are under repair. Of remaining 410 also, only 218 are plying on the road and others are simply non-functional. Thus, less-than-half of the ‘projected to be available’ buses are in service of the citizens. This proves that nobody even gave a thought to either quality or quantity of city buses. This leaves many questions unanswered including the most pertinent one -- Is Nagpur really the Best City as far as public transport is concerned?

NMC’s enquiry panel had pointed out poor maintenance of buses 

Prior to NMC election, the Ruling side had ordered probe into allegations of poor quality service by VNIL. For the purpose, a 13-member committee headed by senior BJP corporator (now Mayor) Prof Anil Sole was appointed. The committee blamed VNIL for irregularities and passing on its responsibilities to NMC. It had recommended NMC to look for a new service provider. But, it ignored allegations of corruption.

 

 

 

No parking space for Starbus 

Photo courtesy: Anil Futane

 Any city that fails in providing enough parking space for vehicles engaged in public transport, cannot boast of being the ‘Best City’, as lack of space for basic amenity like parking indicates lack of development planning at multiple levels.

In case of Starbus, MSRTC has adopted an adamant stand by not making available the space it has at Morbhavan for parking of city buses. There was a brawl between MSRTC employees and NMC office-bearers also over the issue. The matter was supposed to be resolved by Chief Minister at higher level. However, nothing concrete happened on ground. As a result, a large area in Morbhavan bus stand of MSRTC remains vacant but is not available for Starbus parking.

As a result, Starbuses are parked at various locations across the city including Sitabuldi-Maharajbagh Road and Jhansi Rani Square-University Library Road. Miscreants damage and misuse the buses for illicit activities at night. In day-time, parking of buses, especially on above-mentioned crowded roads, creates congestion for smooth flow of traffic. Road-side parking of huge buses poses serious risk to vehicularists. However, neither NMC nor MSRTC have followed-up the matter of parking space by way of holding frequent meetings with each other and sorting out the issue. If a component as vital as parking space is not available in a city like Nagpur, can one say that it deserves an award for the best public transport system?

What about other modes? 

Apart from Starbus service, there are several other modes of public transport and the most widely used one is auto-rickshaws. Surprisingly, the authorities who allow 70-seater buses to ply in the city, are against plying of six-seater auto-rickshaws on city roads. This leaves stress of commuters on three-seater auto-rickshaws. For commuters, there are two main issues pertaining to three-seater auto-rickshaws -- lack of uniform fare from one point to another, and lack of meters. Unfortunately, when authorities take an initiative to enforce meter and uniform fares, organisations affiliated to political parties or various caste or religious bodies bring pressure on them. This leads nowhere and the second-most-used mode of public transport in the city remains unregulated. Another point is of authorised auto-rickshaws in the city. On this count, authorities have failed completely in collecting proper data with names of owners/drivers of auto-rickshaws who are authorised and unauthorised. There is no action taken against auto-rickshaws jumping the signals or driven rashly. Only challans are issued regularly and fine is collected, but this does not compel auto-rickshaw owners/drivers to follow traffic and other rules. The Government is happy with collecting fine, and ignores making this mode of public transport an effective and better one. This mode also faces the same problem as Starbus -- non-availability of proper and adequate parking space or stands. As a result, auto-rickshaws are parked right at curves of busy squares like Sitabuldi, Jhansi Rani Square, etc. This poses serious risk to smooth and safe flow of traffic, apart from the gross violation of rules that no parking of any vehicle is allowed at the bends. How long are we going to allow this nonsensical approach deteriorate public transport system?