I live in a huge city in a developing country. It has a population of over 5 Million, yet it lacks the basic public transport. It is surprising that in such a huge city where almost a million people commute to work everyday, there are not even 100 buses to ferry the people to their destination. Most of the public transportation is owned by private vehicles which range from tuk – tuk to ramshackle vehicles and precarious modes of transport like e rickshaw and manually pulled rickshaws which add to the traffic jams, accidents and chaos on the road.
The government lacks the will power to address the situation. The process of planning,procurement, installation and maintenance of state run vehicles is long, tiresome, circuitous and often governed by vested interests. This is again marred by poor quality staff, age old management systems, lack of accountability and will power on the part of executives. Undue political interferrence and poor state of law and order often make the matters worse.
However, as a part of urban modernisation and solution of public transport issues, the authorities have planned a metro mass rapid transit system that will run through the arterial route of the city, easing the congestion in the most crowded parts of the city. The route is partly operational as of now, and is likely to be fully functional by the end of 2018. However, the one way ticket is close to $0.75 which is beyond capacity of a majority of commuters. This means, that something more innovative and cost effective needs to be developed, before the masses continue to travel in those ramsackle and precarious “vehicles of god”, as many prefer to call them.
