Taking note of the depleting fleet of buses in the Greater Kochi region, the draft of the Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) has recommended increasing the number of buses to 2,381 by the year 2051.
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It has in addition mulled a total of 55 feeder routes and 122 smart-bus shelters, in order to streamline bus services and to woo people back to the public transport system.
Now, approximately 600 city permit buses and as many buses from the suburbs and nearby districts operate in the Greater Kochi region, mostly through conventional routes. Expressing angst at this trend, public transport enthusiast Ebenser Chullikkat spoke of how the preference shown during the past many decades by bus operators to operate through select few arterial roads resulted in innumerable new and emerging residential and commercial areas (like the four-lane Stadium Link Road and the West Kochi-Kundannoor Bridge-NH 66 Bypass corridor) having insufficient or no bus services at all.
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“The draft CMP citing the need to augment the number of buses is a welcome step. But steps must be taken to ensure their optimal utility, primarily by readying bus aggregator apps like the ones used by online taxi aggregator platforms. This will help operate buses on routes based on bookings made by commuters in advance. It will thus bring about a win-win situation, where commuters can opt for bus services on routes of their choice, while bus operators will be assured of optimum patronage. Traffic snarls and obstructive parking caused by private vehicles will lessen, once this system is in place,” said Mr. Chullikkat, who operated ferries from the mainland to islands located off Kochi until the trio of Goshree bridges were built about two decades ago.
Uber had launched a premium shuttle bus service in New Delhi this May, becoming the first aggregator to get a licence from the Transport department in the national capital. Commuters can book their seats up to a week in advance on routes of their choice.
Echoing a similar view and expressing concern at the number of public transport buses in Kerala falling from 35,000 two decades ago to less than 11,000 now, Bijulal Ram, who retired earlier this year as Motor Vehicles Inspector from the Motor Vehicles department (MVD), said there was urgent need to reduce the number of private vehicles, considering the pollution and congestion they were causing. “It must be remembered that buses are the most energy efficient from vehicles that operate on roads. The government must delegate powers to agencies like the regional and State transport authorities to issue permits to buses so that they can operate based on demand. Kerala needs at least 50,000 buses that operate with the help of digital technology in order to reach the benchmark set by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways of 1.33 buses for every 1,000 people.”