BRT Project Seems Like Another Sham
Since the government has still not be able to figure out who is responsible for Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) coming about, I can safely assume that Aliens sent the transport ministry the blue prints and the government merely saw it through. Why Aliens? You may ask… well when no one in the Ministry has the spine to take the blame who else can we turn to?
BRT as it’s full form says is a rapid transport system, but if the bus take 31 minutes to travel 5.8 km while a normal personal can cover that distance walking in less than 30 min, where does the word RAPID fit in?
I really am interested to know, what kind of a homework did the Transport Minister do on the BRT before he approved the whole project. 5 people have died in the stretch and yet I have not read a single note of apology from the Ministry, why is it that human life in India holds no value especially when it is a poor man? I think, every time a new project is started by the government, they automatically assume a certain number of deaths which would occur because of it. The reason of alarm is when the deaths rise above their “approved” limit and that’s when a committee is set up to investigate why they set the limit that low in the first place. 😉
“We will scrap the project” says the government if the people of Delhi feel that it is not working. Easy said than done, what happens to all the money invested in the project, who is accountable for that since it is the taxpayers money?
Delhi is a place where crime is on a all time high and if 70 traffic marshals and 35 traffic cops are stationed on just 6 Km, then what happens to the rest of Delhi?
Lastly, I have one simple question to ask. Even if the BRT project is not scrapped and thing flow smoothly in the coming months, what happens to a bus which breaks down in the single bus lane? What is the contingency plan on that?
I am writing with regards BRT projects as implemented in two Indian cities. Despite being a campaigner for improving Pune’s bus public transport system, I have not managed to share the optimism over BRT projects in Pune (and perhaps Delhi) for various reasons. Unfortunately a number of factors are being over looked in the ongoing debates. Concepts such as cost effectiveness and opportunity costs remain forgotten. Equally to run after a dream called BRT without having basic pre-requisites in place is nothing but foolish. For more details on my views with 15 embedded links please read my article by clicking here -http://better.pune.googlepages.com/WhyBRTinIndiadoesnotexciteme.htm