Author: Srikanth

BEST? Bus! Vroom, *pulls bellpull* Hi, I'm Srikanth. I'm a freelance media fellow with a fascination for buses, toll plazas, fire trucks and drones.

After A Roaring Start, BEST Now Backtracks on Minibuses

After an amazing start in the last two months using its new minibuses, BEST has now decided to do something rather silly.

To give a background, these buses are super popular. In my previous post, I had mentioned the routes back then. Since then, BEST has added a few new routes in Andheri.

A-252 goes to Sardar Vallabhai Patel Nagar, A-266 and A-268 to Swami Samarth Nagar Circle (Lokhandwala Market), A-203 goes to Juhu Bus Station and A-221 has been extended to Natasha Towers.

BEST further extended the services from Andheri to Jogeshwari, running then on A-180 from Jogeshwari Bus Station to Oshiwara Depot and A-234 running from Jogeshwari to Lokhandwala.

BEST also announced two new routes from Wadala Station, A-174 from Wadala Station (West) to Bharani Naka and A-110 to Vidyalankar (Sangam Nagar).

The Wadala lot was flagged of by newly sworn in cabinet minister Aaditya Thackeray.

Junior Thackeray was instrumental in bringing in Humboldt Penguins from North Chile to Mumbai in 2016, where they were housed at the Veermata Jijabhai Udhyan (Byculla Zoo) prior to the untimely death of one of them. He was also pushing for more nightlife back in 2017, a move I had supported.

Also Read: More Nightlife In Mumbai Is Great But Can We Also Focus On Improved Public Transport?

BEST’s success in Andheri resulted in auto-rickshaws crying foul. BEST officials estimate that with an average of 12 trips a day per bus, it has affected nearly 5,292 auto rides per day. Of course, naysayers will be present. One expert questioned why BEST decided to send in such a large contingent to Andheri. The answer to that is simple: Trial and Error.

Why did BEST suddenly go on this path? They had after all cancelled all its AC routes after half a year of trying out happy hours and discounted fares, which did seem to be working. But they had burnt their fingers too much. The existing fleet of Purple Faeries had to be converted to a non-AC fleet, now mostly seen in SoBo.

It all began with former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis appointing IAS officer Praveen Pardeshi as the Municipal Commissioner of Mumbai. After a six day-strike in December 2018-January 2019, and mounting losses of ₹1,000 crore, Pardeshi overrided BEST’s autonomy and provided a grant of ₹2,000 that allowed the undertaking to stand on its feet again.

Now, keeping these experiments in mind, BEST has altered some routes. As states earlier, A-221 now travels to Natasha Towers. A-249 has an additional stop at Dhake Colony. A-251 unfortunately travels only between Versova-Yari Road and Seven Bungalows while A-242 seems cancelled. A-257 is a ring route that goes from Andheri Station to JVPD Circle via JP Road and Link Road but then turns onto Gulmohar Road before reaching the station via Juhu Gali (CD Barfiwala Marg).

BEST has since launched a plethora of routes in SoBo as well. (Ignore the date, it should read 2020 instead of 2019.) Buses from Churchgate and CSMT to Ballard Pier, the Gateway of India, and Dr Syama Prasad Mukherjee Chowk (Museum). The Buses are A-122, A-111, A-112 and A-101. BEST has also cancelled A-54 and A-55 due to low patronage.

While this fleet is based on diesel buses, BEST runs A-167 from Comrade P K Kurne Chowk in Worli to Prabhadevi Station (West), A-352 from Rani Lakshmi Chowk (Sion Circle) to Trombay, A-302 from Rani Lakshmi Chowk to Maharana Pratap Chowk/Mulund Check Naka Bus Station using the Olectra Midi-bus fleet that are electric buses.

Now, BEST will also receive a batch of 500 midi CNG powered buses from Tata. Ten of them have already made their way to the Mumbai Central Depot.

In the midst of this, came some bad news.

Now, while the reason specified is ‘Administrative’, it doesn’t take a genius to know what’s going on here. If you really must know, look up who all form the current government, then read my first post on BEST’s AC buses followed by this article I had written for OpIndia.

The curious case of BEST and its AC buses

The ‘BEST’ scamster Indians should know about – Congress and the Khobragades have a lot to explain

Is BEST slipping back to its old ways?

Featured image by Karthik Nadar on Twitter.

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Bangalore Needs To Do Something About Its Connectivity For Schools

Have you ever woken up at 7am during a weekday to all the honking around you on Bangalore’s roads? There is severe congestion, with cars, autos, cabs, BMTC buses, private buses, the dreaded two wheelers and more. But have you ever wondered about what is the real cause of all the traffic congestion? School buses.

Yes, you read that right. It’s the school buses that are the root cause of the traffic jams in the morning. But why is that the case?

A lot of the new schools in Bangalore are located far away from the city. While some are located on main roads, they’re still located in the outer fringes of the city with many of them located in remote hallis around the city. Don’t believe me? Look up the locations of Podar or Kumarans, both of which have numerous branches located far from the city. A decade ago, I did walk up to some of them, and today I can say that not much has changed in terms of connectivity. There are hardly any BMTC buses that go there. The only way to get there if you miss your school bus is to either get your parents to drop you, or to get there by cab. The latter is becoming increasingly difficult due to a scarcity of cabs on Bangalore’s roads.  

Now why is this an issue?

The core issue here is that it burns a hole in people’s pockets. What if the school bus is late? Or more importantly, what if the school bus is too expensive. I’ve known many a classmate in my childhood (in Mumbai) who have travelled in a BEST bus for a third of the cost that the school bus charged. At the same time, it builds independence in children from a young age (I started travelling alone in buses at age 9) which is crucial for a child’s self-development. Indian parents tend to shelter their wards for too long, which results in them having troubles adjusting when they leave their homes (yours truly included).

How can this be rectified?

The first step would be to have schools not make it mandatory to use a school bus. While many schools do allow other modes of transport, these are relegated to unlicenced vans and minibuses that generally tend to operate illegally under the Motor Vehicles Act. The next step would logically be to get BMTC to ply more buses to these regions. As BMTC services improve, so will the locality. It’s a simple case of long-term demand and supply. Of course, in the interim, BMTC will have to look at fixing their fleet for it is uncommon to see buses with seats falling off or metal strips protruding out from somewhere.

Back in the day, using public transport was necessary to go from home to tuitions, and more. With integrated courses in schools becoming the norm, it becomes a little redundant. But getting children to take up public transport, is an important thing.

As far as subsidies for students are concerned, BMTC seems to be doing a fairly good job at that. BMTC lists out the rates for its passes, going up to a maximum of ₹1,100 for high school students. Of course, this seems to be for a single route. Back when I was a student, it was roughly ₹1,200 a year for a single route pass and ₹2,800 for an all route pass that was valid on all buses except the AC Volvo fleet.

Apart from this, BMTC also needs to actively work on setting up proper marked bus stops. The city – outside of the core areas – lacks proper bus stops. They’re often junctions or marked by obscure or nondescript boards. Even in core city areas, where bus shelters exist, buses do not stop there. BMTC first needs to enforce discipline. BMTC can even take some inspiration from BEST and induct a fleet of mini-AC buses. BEST’s new fleet has been a hit with passengers, and has already got auto-rickshaws up in arms in Andheri. Given how the auto-rickshaw scene in Bangalore is, the impact here will be much much greater.

What do students currently use apart from institution vehicles?

That’s pretty easy to guess, right? The preferred choice is UberPool and OlaShare. Back in the days when I used to work in Bangalore, pooling/sharing was the only way to get to work (it was initially cheaper than taking three buses to work). Of course, my journeys were often delayed because Google Maps considers Bangalore and Boston to have a similar road structure (more on this later) and would often send me back half way to pick up a student at Christ University only to drop them off a kilometre away at one of the numerous hostels in the vicinity.

Slowly, this gave way to Bounce, a two-wheeler rental service. Residents of the IT city would have noticed their yellow coloured Activas parked outside of many a metro station. Bounce operates using an app – much similar to Yulu and Zoomcar PEDL for cycles – and allows users to park a bike a recognised parking location and end the trip. Then, someone else can pick up the vehicle. So popular is Bounce that several housing societies (including mine) banned users from parking vehicles inside the compound due to strangers coming to pick them up.

However, two-wheelers are dangerous. A 2018 Hindustan Times report said that two wheeler users, especially women, were the most vulnerable on the road in Pune, a city whose traffic discipline (actually lack of), rivals that of Bangalore. Now, do we really want out kids to die on the street so easily? More importantly, despite them being shared vehicles, they’re still adding traffic to the streets. Back in 2013, the ACP of Bangalore Traffic Police, B Dayanand had said that it was two wheelers and not their four wheeled counterparts that were responsible for the city’s constantly rising traffic congestion.

Buses are good, yes please

Buses are a far better way of commuting. They are safer, and less polluting (per user, not per vehicle) and give commuters some peace of mind. After all, the person navigating thru the madness of rush hour isn’t you but an experienced driver. Why not tell our kids to do the same? With over 45,000 students getting admitted to colleges under Bangalore University every year, that’s a huge demographic to be tapped.

This article is the first in a series of articles relating to schoolkids and collegekids.

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BEST’s New AC Buses Are A Delight To Travel On

A few months ago, BEST decided to slash its fares along the Delhi model. While I’m not to fond of the new fare structure, it has worked. Empty buses are now full. Crowds have shifted from autos to buses and sometimes, even the Metro has less crowd.

Under the new fare structure; the minimum fare for non-AC buses (regular, limited and express is ₹5 for 0-5km, ₹10 for 5-10km, ₹15 for for up to 15km and ₹20 for further distances. The corresponding fare for AC buses is ₹6, ₹13, ₹19 and ₹25 respectively.

BEST has now started to bring back their AC buses, expanding on the earlier fleet of Tata Starbus Diesel-Electric Hybrids operating on BKC routes. It has introduced Electric AC buses built by Olectra (formerly Goldstone) along with AC mini-buses (my transit group calls them postvans) that seat 21 passengers. These mini-buses are diesel-powered buses that are manufactured by Force Motors and have been contracted by BEST on a wet lease – wherein the driver also belongs to the lessor. While Olectra’s buses are on Wet Lease from them, the mini-buses are on lease from several agencies (indicated either on the front and rear of the bus next to the depot name and on the MV Act declaration on the side).

Buses supplied to Oshiwara Depot have come from an operator called Hansa City Bus (HCB).

Some routes such as AS51 (shares the same route as 51 from Colaba Depot to Santacruz Depot) and AS-6 (same as 6Ltd from Colaba Depot to Tata Power, Chembur) share the same routes as their non-AC counterparts, while some don’t.

BEST started deploying these mini-buses under a conductor-less model at Andheri Station (West). Several routes have been pushed into action. A-251, A-249 and A-221. While the former two run from Andheri Station (West) to Seven Bunglows (Saat Bangla) Bus Station with a stop at Four Bungalows (Char Bangla), the latter runs to Juhu Vile Parle Bus Station (JVPD) with a stop at Juhu Shopping Centre.

Also Read: Conductor-less buses: A boon or a bane?

From Andheri (West) Bus Station, the following are the routes:

  1. A-221 Andheri Station (W) <=> JVPD Bus Station
  2. A-235 Andheri Station (W) <=> Monginis Cake Company (Citi Mall)
  3. A-242 Andheri Station (W) <=> Monginis Cake Company (City Mall)
  4. A-248 Andheri Station (W) <=> Ramesh Nagar
  5. A-249 Andheri Station (W) <=> Seven Bungalows Bus Station
  6. A-251 Andheri Station (W) <=> Seven Bungalows Bus Station
  7. A-254 Andheri Station (W) <=> Veera Desai Road Police Station

From Andheri (East) there is only one AC bus and that is BKC-16 from Agarkar Chowk to SEEPZ Village. This is a regular bus (with a conductor) and uses the Tata Starbus Hybrid buses that belong to the Dharavi Depot.

Thankfully, them Purple Faeries are no longer around.

The timings for most of these buses (not all) are available on BEST’s app, BEST प्रवास (Prawas) that can be downloaded here for Android and here for iOS/Apple devices.

This post is dedicated to my friend Yash, who’s been an ardent supporter of my writing. You can follow Yash on Twitter @Yash_Railfan

Featured image is of a mini-bus at Andheri Bus Station, image credits Karthik Nadar. You can follow Karthik on Twitter @karthikist.

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I took a Rapido to work today, and now I want the government to legalize bike taxis

 

I took a Rapido to work today, and now I want the government to legalize bike taxis.

This morning, when I left for work, I decided to try something different. I normally take an Uber Pool or Ola Share to work because of Bangalore’s acute lack of proper transport services. Sharing a ride makes sense for a middle-class professional in his mid-20s because it’s cheap, and it’s faster and more convenient than a bus.

However, today the city witnessed some major traffic snarls and fares were, naturally, on the higher side. Looking at my options, I decided to try Rapido — a bike taxi aggregator. While I was experiencing a similar experience to my usual ride, I was surprised, for the ride was much faster and much more comfortable. The reason is simple common sense — bikes can navigate congested areas better.

The interesting thing, however, is that bike taxis are banned in the states of Karnataka and Maharashtra — two states that contribute the lion’s share to India’s economy. While the concept of bike taxis is not exactly new to India — they have been operational in the state of Goa since 1980 — the Uberization of the segment is, quite obviously, a recent affair.

 

Too Many Regulations, Too Many Obstructions

Maharashtra’s Transport Minister was quoted saying, “Such taxis are extremely unsafe and should not be allowed.”

Due to the highly regulated nature of the economy, nobody really worked on getting bike taxis on the street. At the same time, due to the licence permit raj, many states withheld the issuance of taxi permits leading to an artificial scarcity in the sector. Further, India’s quasi-federal structure puts the power to make decisions of this nature in the hands of the state and not the city under the framework of the Motor Vehicles Act of 1988 and its various state-level counterparts. However, the neo-liberal regime of Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2004 ensured that the only requirement for bike taxis was a commercial registration along with a yellow registration number plate.

In 2015, there were several companies such as HeyTaxi, HeyBob, m-Taxi, Baxi, and more operating across various cities. Barely two weeks after HeyTaxi rolled out its services in Mumbai, the Maharashtra state government decided to ban it, although the service continues to operate, albeit using loopholes in the law. When Uber and Ola launched their Uber Moto and Ola Bikes platform, they were quickly hounded out of several states with vehicles seized for mundane reasons from lack of permissions to lack of yellow number plates.

Maharashtra’s Transport Minister was quoted saying, “Such taxis are extremely unsafe and should not be allowed,” even though the state was planning to regularize them. Karnataka went to the extent of banning not only bike taxis, but also bus services operated by Ola and also tried to ban UberPool and OlaShare earlier this year, all while citing sections of the nearly 30-year-old MV Act. The state then took itself back to the Stone Age with a ban on pillion riders on bikes whose engine capacities were below 100cc.

It is, however, interesting to note states such as Telangana, Haryana, Punjab, and Rajasthan have deregulated the sector, allowing bike taxis to ply their trade. In Punjab, the government launched a subsidy program to offer two-wheelers, which — although a form of socialism — is still better than a complete ban. Rajasthan and Telangana both signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Uber, with Telangana going to the level of having its Information Technology minister take a ride along with former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick.

 

Bike Taxis Are Great. Why Ban Them?

As a regular commuter, the average working professional is more likely to understand the travails of the daily urban ride. Government officials rarely take public transport, often having their own chauffeured cars which completely insulate them from what we would have to go through on a daily basis. Along with this, government transport projects usually follow a “one size fits all” approach that creates a homogenous transit network in a heterogeneous society. The benefits of ridesharing are there for all to see. It affords people the chance of a better lifestyle — one they may have never imagined previously. It provides better options to the daily commuter and helps a lot in clearing up the transport mess that our cities are subject to.

Why not stop the whataboutery and legalize them?

For the driver, bike taxis have a higher return on investment. The most common bike in India, especially for taxis, is the Hero Splendor that costs around ₹50,000, depending on the state. In contrast, the most popular car that is used for ride-sharing, the Maruti Swift Dzire Tour, costs upwards of ₹500,000 for the diesel-powered variant. Fares for bike taxis vary anywhere from ₹2 per kilometer to ₹6 per kilometer, significantly cheaper than a shared or pooled ride.

Many a bike taxi driver moonlights as a delivery person for food delivery platforms as well, so why not allow them to engage in productive labor when they’re otherwise idle?

The biggest plus point is that you get to see more women drivers around. Women in India have preferred two-wheelers to four-wheelers for decades now and with issues cropping up about the safety of women, especially since there is only one other person on a bike, it makes a lot of difference. After UberMoto’s launch in Haryana, a woman in Gurgaon completed a thousand trips in a year.

When it becomes so apparent that bike taxis take the benefits of ride-sharing a step further, why not stop the whataboutery and legalize them? More operators will also mean better services — drivers often switch providers depending on the prevalent fare. Also, given that it is clear that it benefits women as well, it should be legalized on a priority basis. Concerns about safety in terms of drivers assaulting and harassing people is on an unfounded basis — it is a two-wheeler; doing anything will certainly cause an accident.

Hindering innovations like bike taxis is only going to take things several steps backward. The lack of an open operating environment will slow down — or even stop — innovations in the manufacturing industry. The freedom to operate bike taxis may see increased research and development in making bikes more efficient, faster, and safer. Given how not only bike taxis but also pillion riders are being made unwelcome, innovation will just keep stagnating.


Srikanth Ramakrishnan

 

Srikanth Ramakrishnan is a Libertarian Hindu who wishes to see a market oriented transport sector in India. 

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.

If you plan to take a bike ride, don’t forget to wear a mask, a visor and carry sanitizer with you! Also, don’t forget a helmet.

       

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More Nightlife In Mumbai Is Great But Can We Also Focus On Improved Public Transport?

Nightlife And The Evening Economy: Aaditya Thackeray Seems To Have Understood It Well, When Will Others Follow Suit

Yuva Sena President Aaditya Thackeray last week (20 December) tweeted out that state government (of which the Shiv Sena is a part) had notified a proposal titled ‘Mumbai 24 hours’. The proposal in question, spearheaded by the junior Thackeray seeks to allow businesses to stay open 24 hours.

 

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Now it is worth noting that Thackeray mentions establishments outside of five-star hotels in non-residential areas that can be accessed by all and sundry. This seems to be a good move to ensure that nightlife in the country’s financial capital is given its due, since most establishments down their shutters by 2 am.

Why is nightlife important?

The ‘regular’ society usually goes to sleep at night and wakes up the next morning to continue their life. However, with the advent of globalism, world is fast-changing to adapt to 24-hour activity. Take the example of the information technology (IT) and the IT-enabled services (ITES) sectors. Both of them – predominantly dealing with clients in the west – are pretty much active the entire day. Even the media, today functions round-the-clock. Freelancers across various industries too are active across the day, not just to deliver to foreign clients, but also within the country.

With establishments being active throughout the day and night, it gives people an opportunity to venture out at night for various reasons. Many a café that offers internet connectivity attracts people looking to get work done.

Mumbai, like most other metropolitan areas in India is home to numerous startups. Startups, by virtue of being startups invariably see a flexible work schedule usually running beyond the confines of sunlight.

Many such entities operate out of cafes and other establishments (including shared workspaces) due to the lack of a physical office and would thus be the biggest beneficiary of such a move. They could now hold meetings, meet people or just get some work down outside of their usual spaces.

A shift in a city’s operations

Night-time has hitherto been the domain of young partygoers. Work usually takes a backseat, but off-late it has seen an increased presence in major cities.

This brings about another important factor: Crime. A lot of crimes take place at night when fewer people are out. If more people venture out, it would in essence make it more difficult for criminals to strike. This sends out an important point to the law enforcement: Increase patrolling at night. However, in a country like India, it might see an increase in moral policing as well.

The next logical step for the administration is to increase the availability of public transport at night. With the advent of ride-sharing, traveling at night is an easier affair, but then ride-sharing is not everyone’s cup of tea. More buses and trains in the night will mean people who stay out late or have to leave in the dead of the night will have transit options, thus leading to better productivity in terms of real-time activity.

However, nightlife does come with a rider – those who venture out at night must accept that they face the risk of being the victims of a crime. Conversely, it also indicates that law enforcement must step up to ensure better vigilance and patrol at night.

While Mumbai doesn’t have a sizable amount of industries that operate throughout the clock-cycle, other cities such as nearby Pune and Bengaluru do. For many an IT employee, working the night shift usually means the lack of access to a restaurant or café in the event they want to go out. Shouldn’t they too have the freedom to go to an establishment at any time of the day?

Thackeray, being a youngster, clearly understands the advantages of having a continuously operating city. Perhaps it is time that other cities too, take a look at it.

Now for the transit

It is imperative that public transit remains functional all the time. The Suburban network shuts of for 2.5 hours in the night. The Metro shuts at midnight. Why not have them operational round the clock? Let buses run at night too, not just BEST, TMT and NMMT, but also MSRTC. The last Shivneri between Mumbai and Pune leaves at 11-11.30 in each direction. It needs to operate even at night, at least towards Mumbai.

Having any time transit is the first step to more economic activity and productivity.

 

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Lessons From The Diamond City: How Surtis Gave Up The Tuk Tuk For The Bus

At a time when every transco is struggling to get people to board the bus, there’s a faint glimmer of hope, and interestingly, it comes from the Diamond City of Surat.

A year ago, Surat was like Pune in the early 2000s – autorickshaws and two-wheelers ruled the roost, but now, the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC), has managed to get 93 per cent of the city on a bus!

But how did they manage to do this?

Times of India, in a report has listed exactly what Surat has done. Surat used the two most important things in modern mobility – technology and pricing – to achieve this stellar record. The disadvantage the SMC had to fight – only the SitiLink BRTS buses were air-conditioned while the Surat City Bus (SCB) was not.

Starting in 2013, the SMC launched a new line of services labelled Blueline buses, operated by a private operator. These buses included air conditioned buses.  A total of 120 bus stops were constructed by the SMC prior to the Blueline buses being flagged off. The Blueline service is expected to run 125 buses for six years.

The advantage that the SMC had was both SitiLink and the SCB were agencies of the SMC, leading to better existential cooperation between them.

Prior to the launch of SitiLink, private operators ruled the roost. With an average 7-8 per cent growth, the city needed an efficient transit service.

The Sitilink deployed an IT-based system to monitor transit violations like speeding, missing stops and arbirtary change in routes (Wish BMTC did something of this sort). It also has a central messaging system for all vehicles in case of any event or emergency (BEST does this using their Trimax ETMs). Fares are kept relatively low with ₹4 being the minimum fare to compete  with share-autos.

However, the SitiLink incurs an annual loss of ₹7-8 crore. The figure is expected to increase as more services are brought in, but is still low given how much losses other transcos (especially DTC) makes.

In order to combat losses, the SMC collects a one-time “vehicle tax” from each new vehicle. At 2 per cent, this gives them enough money to keep operations running smoothly. Along with this, a portion of the Floor Space Index (FSI) along the transit corridors are collected and meant exclusively for public transport.

The important advantage that Surat (and even Ahmedabad) has is that it services are operated by the civic body which knows the city best, and also can raise funds the right way.

Well done Surat!

Featured image: BRTS Buses in Surat (CEPT University)

 

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Competition or Not, Why is BEST not innovating much?

It’s not new that BEST is in serious hot water. The Undertaking has for long been in dire straits, going so far as to allow full body advertisements on every bus in the fleet to canceling all AC buses. But what is the reason? Lack of innovation? Yes.

 

The oldest transco in India has been unable to keep up with the times, forcing it into this situation. Why?

Simple. The lack of innovation due to toxic competition, with toxic being the key word. You’ll soon realise why it’s important.

BEST is an autonomous agency of the MCGM. Thus, the MCGM isn’t liable to bail out BEST if it ever needs to. Other transcos, such as DTC, MTC, BMTC, NMMT, PMPML, all get bailed out by their municipal bodies/state governments.

Further, due to BEST’s core competition being NMMT and TMT, both of which are sarkari bodies, innovation won’t happen.

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Should I write an ‘argumentative essay’ on the benefits of land transportation?

Should I write an ‘argumentative essay’ on the benefits of land transportation?

I think I should. I really should. Another month has gone by without much on this blog. I’m sorry. Being in the media business is not an easy task.

Like last month, I did manage to get myself featured in Swarajya’s print edition this month as well; do check it out here: 70 Years After Its Creation, Pakistan Is A Failed State.

Now the important question. A while back, a friend of mine told me about a discussion she had with someone else. She told me that the topic moved towards land-based transit vs others, and referred the other person to my first article on Swarajya: Lesson From Amtrak’s Failure: Invest Heavily In Railways. She then asked me if I could write an ‘argumentative essay’ on the matter. Perhaps I should. I asked on Twitter:

The results were surprisingly positive, so yes, I am going to write one.

I intend to do it in two sections: Intercity and Intracity. I have had my had my reservations about aviation in intracity spaces, you can read about it here: Are We Ready For Three-Dimensional Transport?

So, requesting you folks to drop in a line in the comments section with additional feedback.

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If I were to write a book, what should it be about?

Okie, so I apologise for not posting on the blog for the whole of August. It’s a bad habbit for a blogger. I admit, I have not written much this month either. I was down with dengue for a week (thank you Bangalore). I have, however, been featured in Swarajya’s print edition this month, do have a look here: Dharma and the Manager.

So, you now know that my writings have been featured on several other places including Swarajya, The Quint, and most importantly, the Foundation for Economic Education.

Given that I have managed get myself this far, I know that the day won’t be too far when I will be able to write for other publications.

At this juncture, I’d like to ask you, dear readers, one important question:

If I were to write a book, what should it be on?

I ran a Twitter poll on this; it surprisingly got 22 votes.

Don’t go by the poll options however, for I could only put four options there. I can write on a lot more but preferably transport and infra related.

I plan to soon write a long-form piece on a major economic concept related to transport along with another blogger, Kundan Srivastav. You can follow Kundan on Twitter, he tweets @kun_srivastav.

Till then, do drop your ideas, suggestions and more in the comments. I plan to start writing a series of essays on modern transit, maybe this can be a good start.

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The viability of EVs hinges on deregulation of the transport sector

The last two months have been very eventful for electric vehicles in India. Starting with Nagpur’s Electric Mass Transit Project, the sector has been abuzz with various entries into the electric vehicle (EV) scene. With Ola Cabs calling the shots in Nagpur, two Munjal family ventures– Hero Future Energies and Hero MotoCorp announced their foray into the charging infra sector, while public-sector NTPC Limited set up charging stations in the National Capital Region (NCR). Further, it was also announced that the Centre was reportedly in talks with Japanese investment major Softbank to procure two lakh electric buses.

Given Piyush Goyal’s announcement that India would sell only EVs by 2030, this might sound like things are on track, but are they?

Arguably, the question that arose after this statement was whether this would be feasible or not. At this juncture it is crucial to look at Goyal’s words. The target, according to what Goyal to PTI reporters was to ensure that only EVs are sold. Going by this, it would be possible to ensure that fuel-based vehicles are not sold, either through taxation or emission-based policies. There is no doubt about that. However, whether electric vehicles would be practical is something with a bigger question mark at the end of it.

So, are electric vehicles really that viable from a practical view?

Possibly not, at least not yet. The market is still not open enough for demand and supply economics to take over.

Start deregulating the market

Governments across the country have stopped private operators from plying legally. Of course, this doesn’t stop many of them from plying illegally, like the ones commonly seen on Bangalore’s roads. When the Government of Maharashtra is partnering with Ola Cabs to provide electric cabs in Nagpur, why can’t it allow Ola to operate electric buses? Private players will be able to raise the capital required for electric buses faster than government bodies and given the stark contrast between the two in terms of operations and quality of service, they would operate them better too.

Services like Ola Shuttle, CityFlo and ZipGo appeal to the middle-class by offering services such as a reserved seat, free wi-fi, cashless payments and convenient timings. If the government cannot offer these services, which it evidently seems unable to do so, let the markets take over.

Some manufacturers like Volvo Buses are even offering their buses on a turnkey basis where the operator need not buy the bus, but just pay the company who will lease out the buses. Public sector agencies may not go in for these for various reasons, but the private sector surely will.

 

Charging Points Need Deregulation Too

From all the investment that we have seen so far in charging spaces, there is a clear trend visible. Charging infrastructure is entirely in the hands of a few large bodies establishments that have money. While it is perfectly reasonable to expect the government to provide charging points as a means of garnering additional revenue, it is not desirable for the government to either be involved in, or control the entire system.

As we move towards a more market-oriented economy, we need to understand that EVs, like any other commodity needs to be deregulated massively.

To start this, we need to enable individuals to lease out parking spaces for those looking for them. Not every major provider will have a charging point in the vicinity, and not every vehicle might have enough battery power to go up to a charging point. If an individual has a vacant parking lot with a charging point, they can then choose to lease it out to someone. Leasing out vacant spaces as parking is not exactly legal in India and the closest we have come to legalising this was in 2016 when the Gurgaon Municipal Corporation proposed to make amendments in the local laws to allow people to do so.

Outside of India, leasing out vacant lands as parking spaces is quite common with several countries even having an app for it. If the sector was deregulated, this would solve a lot of problems for us, from congestion to charging and would in many ways make commuting easier. It might even encourage people to take up public transport for part of their journey while leaving their vehicles to charge at some parking space. This system of ad-hoc charging spots will answer a lot of demand and supply questions similar to how platforms like Airbnb helped make living spaces more affordable.

Unlike fuel, electricity as a commodity is a lot more flexible. In this scenario, electricity is not being resold– only the parking space is being leased out. Electricity is another commodity being consumed by a tenant who in turn pays for it. Further, similar to concept of peak pricing followed in the hospitality and transport sector, such pricing can be applied here too. Since most distribution companies charge different rates based on the total electricity consumption, owners can change price brackets as and when their consumption goes up.

Local bodies also could provide incentives or tax rebates to builders who provide charging spaces in residential complexes. Since many commercial and industrial complexes have charging points, it shouldn’t be much of a problem to have this emulated across all sectors.

The government needs to ponder about deregulating the transport sector heavily, if it intends for a complete EV scene by 2030.

Note: This article was written on 13 June 2017, after reading an article titled A misguided push towards electric vehicles. For some reason, I thought it would be a great idea to send this article across to Mint, which was stupid on my part. The Mint team did respond to me, but then practically sat on this article for over a month, making it evident that they had rejected the article but had failed to inform me about it.

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