What Urban Kerala Needs Today Is A Master Plan That Seamlessly Connects Road, Rail And Water Transport And A Regulating Agency To Oversee A Set Of Time-Bound Projects To Ease Travel Woes
As the UDF regime is about to start its third year in office, a major course correction it has to undertake is to get its priorities right in the transport sector and urgently unbundle some projects that will deliver tangible results in a reasonable period say experts. They feel the state should not waste time, energy and resources on projects like the high-speed rail corridor which will cater to a few sections of the population, but focus on projects, executable in a realistic time frame. This will help the state optimally utilize its limited resources, including land. All issues can be resolved through a master plan for the transport sector that will consider the state as one urban or semi-urban continuum while envisaging seamless connectivity through multiple forms of transport, say experts. The plan T must tap long water bodies, integrate road, rail and water transport. The need of the hour is the introduction of an agency to usher in effective coordination among multiple agencies involved in the divergent modes of transport.
“What we lack primarily is a coordinated approach, with each department trying to retain the hold on their turfs. For instance, the railways may be constructing an over-bridge, but PWD may take its own time to provide an approach road. The water transport department maybe designing means to make a water body navigable without realizing that fisheries department is scripting another project to develop fishing there,” says National transportation planning and research centre (Natpac) scientist T Elangovan.
Transport secretary Elias George responds enthusiastically to the proposal. “An integrated transport network for the whole state is a great idea. No state has done it so far. The Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA), which will be introduced in Kochi, will be a pioneering effort in this direction. UMTA will entail unified command and control system for multiple modes of transport,” he says.
Kerala’s vehicle population almost doubles every six years whereas the annual of population growth is only 5%. The latest reports peg the vehicle population at 70 lakh. Earlier, studies have revealed that vehicle density in Kerala is 1:6 against the national average of 1:25. There were 36,115 road accidents in the state last year and 4,107 people had lost their lives while another 25,809 suffered serious injuries in those mishaps.
“Any serious initiative to reduce the accidents should have components to develop parallel modes of transport like railways and waterways along with efforts to augment the road network,” says transport expert and General Secretary of Thrissur Railway Passenger Association P Krishnakumar.
“In the case of railways, priority should be on completing line doubling and electrification works as well as the introduction of automatic signalling system. Only limited portions like Mulanthuruthy-Kottayam and Shoranur–Karakkad remain incomplete on doubling front. These incomplete patches are depriving the state of the advantages of doubling works already over in other sections,” he said.
Studies have established that only Rs 1 crore per kilometre would be required to introduce automatic signalling system. The total length of the rail line in the state, including the Mangalore-Nagercoil stretch as well as Shoranur-Coimbatore line, is only 804 km. So, the total investment required for this would be Rs 800 crore.
“This can be easily generated if the state and railways join hands. Both will have to chip in Rs 150 crore each annually for three years to achieve this. With this, trains can achieve a speed of 150 to 200 km per hour. This means, a journey from Kozhikode to Thiruvananthapuram will take four hours. With the highspeed rail corridor, we will be able to cover the distance in two-and-ahalf hours, but the investment would be Rs 1,20,000 crore,” says Krishnakumar.
Forty years ago, Kerala had navigable waterway of 1,680 km and it has shrunk to 300 km now due to encroachment and other factors. “Present waterways will disappear unless urgent steps are taken to conserve them,” says Elangovan.
Nearly, 20% of the goods and passenger traffic were being handled through waterways in Kerala couple of decades ago. But the share has come down to less than 1% now. The investment required for making one kilometre of waterway navigable is only one-eighth the cost of road works of the same length.
CHUGGING ALONG
“What we lack primarily is a coordinated approach, with each department trying to retain the hold on their turfs. For instance, the railways may be constructing an over-bridge, but PWD may take its own time to provide an approach road. The water transport department maybe designing means to make a water body navigable without realizing that fisheries department is scripting another project to develop fishing there,” says National transportation planning and research centre (Natpac) scientist T Elangovan.
Transport secretary Elias George responds enthusiastically to the proposal. “An integrated transport network for the whole state is a great idea. No state has done it so far. The Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA), which will be introduced in Kochi, will be a pioneering effort in this direction. UMTA will entail unified command and control system for multiple modes of transport,” he says.
Kerala’s vehicle population almost doubles every six years whereas the annual of population growth is only 5%. The latest reports peg the vehicle population at 70 lakh. Earlier, studies have revealed that vehicle density in Kerala is 1:6 against the national average of 1:25. There were 36,115 road accidents in the state last year and 4,107 people had lost their lives while another 25,809 suffered serious injuries in those mishaps.
“Any serious initiative to reduce the accidents should have components to develop parallel modes of transport like railways and waterways along with efforts to augment the road network,” says transport expert and General Secretary of Thrissur Railway Passenger Association P Krishnakumar.
“In the case of railways, priority should be on completing line doubling and electrification works as well as the introduction of automatic signalling system. Only limited portions like Mulanthuruthy-Kottayam and Shoranur–Karakkad remain incomplete on doubling front. These incomplete patches are depriving the state of the advantages of doubling works already over in other sections,” he said.
Studies have established that only Rs 1 crore per kilometre would be required to introduce automatic signalling system. The total length of the rail line in the state, including the Mangalore-Nagercoil stretch as well as Shoranur-Coimbatore line, is only 804 km. So, the total investment required for this would be Rs 800 crore.
“This can be easily generated if the state and railways join hands. Both will have to chip in Rs 150 crore each annually for three years to achieve this. With this, trains can achieve a speed of 150 to 200 km per hour. This means, a journey from Kozhikode to Thiruvananthapuram will take four hours. With the highspeed rail corridor, we will be able to cover the distance in two-and-ahalf hours, but the investment would be Rs 1,20,000 crore,” says Krishnakumar.
Forty years ago, Kerala had navigable waterway of 1,680 km and it has shrunk to 300 km now due to encroachment and other factors. “Present waterways will disappear unless urgent steps are taken to conserve them,” says Elangovan.
Nearly, 20% of the goods and passenger traffic were being handled through waterways in Kerala couple of decades ago. But the share has come down to less than 1% now. The investment required for making one kilometre of waterway navigable is only one-eighth the cost of road works of the same length.
CHUGGING ALONG
1 Kochi Metro project starts after much delay
2 Monorail projects at Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram get much-needed push, preliminary works begin
3 KSRTC starts inter-city AC Volvo services
2 Monorail projects at Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram get much-needed push, preliminary works begin
3 KSRTC starts inter-city AC Volvo services
4 For the first time, state government earmarks Rs 200 crore for rescuing cash-strapped KSRTC
5 Mobility hubs, on the lines of the Vyttila Mobility Hub, conceptualized in major towns including Thrissur and Kottayam
6 Plans mooted to increase and reconstruct waterways
7 MVD introduces e-payment facility at all offices in Thiruvananthapuram, to introduce the same across state this year
8 To speed up services, MVD opens eight new sub RTOs
8 To speed up services, MVD opens eight new sub RTOs
(T Ramavarman, Times of India dt 16-5-2013)
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