The initial 5.8 Km of the Bus Corridor in Delhi became operational on April 20th 2008. The facility stretches from Moolchand to Ambedkar Nagar along JBT Marg in South Delhi. The corridor infrastructure consist of single median lanes for buses with physical segregation and double platform bus stops located close to the intersections; two lanes for general traffic; and bikeways and sidewalks on the two sides. Bus operations include 57 different routes operated by Delhi Transport Corporation – DTC (a public company owned by the Delhi Government), and private operators (Blue Line Buses) under permit by the Secretary of Transport STC.
The corridor ran into some difficulties during the first few weeks of operations which received widespread negative media coverage resulting in a less than positive initial public perception of the merits of the project. Moreover, with the opposition attacking the government on grounds of a failed implementation of the bus corridor – the debate become politicized.
As any evaluation of the corridor thus far had been purely perception based as opposed to a technical review, the Centre for Science and Environment invited CST – India & EMBARQ’s experts Dr. Dario Hildgo and Madhav Pai to facilitate an independent evaluation of the corridor. Our experts received support from the ClimateWorks Foundation and EMBARQ Global Strategic Partners, the Shell Foundation and the Caterpillar Foundation to complete this task.
The team used a dual framework to evaluate the corridor in Delhi in relation to internationally recognized BRT concepts as well as the corridor’s evaluation from the supply side and on the basis of its performance. The evaluation is qualitative in nature, but provides a structure for systematic comparison across projects, cities and countries.
BRT Corridor : Evaluation
The evaluation process was broken into the following steps:
- Conduct interviews with relevant stakeholders
- Identify key questions about the corridor
- Experience the operations on the corridor
- Provide an analysis to answer the key questions
- Evaluate current characteristics and performance of the corridor
- Define areas for potential improvements
- Provide recommendations for the current corridor
The team had the following conclusions: the Delhi bus corridor has improved the mobility of the people along the initial pilot stretch. Bus travel speeds are around 18 km per hour, 150% faster than buses outside the corridor (12 km per hour). As more people use the buses than motor vehicles, the overall reduction in travel time along the corridor for all the users is estimated in 19%. The corridor has also received high ratings from the users: 88% of the bus commuters expressed they were happy with the corridor in a CSE survey in June 2008. In addition, the segregation of bicycles and pedestrians has improved the travel experience and the perception of safety for these important users of the corridor.
More
Bus Rapid Transit Systems – BRTS in Inida
BRTS has been identified as a critical component for the sustainable and low carbon growth of Indian cities. Nevertheless, the initial two efforts in busways in Pune and Delhi are only partial attempts that set back the thinking and attractiveness of BRTS. India still needs a best practice example of a good, high quality and complete BRTS. Improvement of the operations in Delhi bus corridor and implementation of a good BRTS in one of the smaller cities will serve as a model for the dozens of other cites already working on or contemplating BRT in the future.