Urban Transportation

Transport utility, civic body spar over bus purchase

Wednesday, 07 April 2010 11:24 administrator

Indian Express 07.04.2010

Transport utility, civic body spar over bus purchase

Express News Service Tags : transport Posted: Wednesday, Apr 07, 2010 at 0239 hrs

Transport

Pune: It seems that Puneites will have to wait longer to benefit from the additional buses in the fleet of the public transport company, Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML). The differences within the ruling alliance partners in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) have further delayed the purchase of new buses.

On Tuesday, the PMC standing committee took on the PMPML for issuing work order for purchase of 500 buses with doors on both sides. The Congress, Shiv Sena and BJP joined hands to pass a resolution that the civic body would purchase buses and hand it over to PMPML if the public transport company fails to withdraw the work order by Wednesday.

“The standing committee had clarified that the PMPML should not purchase buses with doors on both sides from the funds to be provided by PMC under JNNURM. However, it was learnt that the PMPML issued work order for purchase of 500 buses with doors on both sides. Hence, the PMPML officers were summoned to give a clarification to standing committee,” said Arvind Shinde, chairman, Standing Committee.

The standing committee meeting was adjourned after the PMPML staff failed to turn up. Corporator Ujjwal Keskar and Rajendra Wagaskar staged a walk out in protest of the PMPML not following the direction of standing committee.

A resolution of urging PMPML to withdraw the work order was taken after the standing committee met after two hours.

The resolution was opposed by NCP corporators but it got approved with the support of corporators of Congress, Shiv Sena and BJP.

When pointed out that Mayor Mohansingh Rajpal of NCP was too in favour of buses with doors on both sides, Shinde said, “We are taking decisions in the interest of citizens.”

Last Updated on Wednesday, 07 April 2010 11:27

WB to lend Rs 1,000 cr more for urban transport

Tuesday, 06 April 2010 10:05 administrator

The New Indian Express 06.04.2010

WB to lend Rs 1,000 cr more for urban transport

NM Satheesh

HYDERABAD: The World Bank has offered the municipal administration department of the State Government a Rs 1,000-crore loan, the repayment of which will be made by the Centre, for improving the urban transport in the State.

A preliminary discussion took place between the representatives of the World Bank and those of the commissioner of municipal administration Premchand recently and another round of discussion will take place in two months’ time. The fresh loan will be in addition to the Rs 1,431-crore loan, for which an MOU was signed with the World Bank by Chief Minister K Rosaiah in January this year.

``The World Bank has selected six States in the country to offer loan for decongestion of traffic and Andhra Pradesh is one of them,’’ said Principal Secretary (MAUD) TS Appa Rao.

He said that preliminary discussions on the fresh loan were held in Delhi two months ago and another meeting took place recently.

A third round of talks will be held in two months’ time and the projects under the agreement will be finalised by the end of the year.

According to municipal administration and Urban development (MAUD) officials, the World Bank was impressed by the programmes being taken up under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM ) and came forward to lend Rs 1,000 crore.

While the loan agreement, which has been signed already, will cover civic amenities like supply of drinking water and sanitation, the fresh loan is meant for improvement of traffic conditions in the cities.

The officials say the loan will obviously benefit the big cities in the State which are experiencing traffic congestion due to narrow roads and increase in the population, and lack of innovative approaches to ease the problem. The fresh loan offer will make MAUD officials think hard on innovative measures to meet the objectives.

The World Bank wants new and innovative ideas rather than traditional methods of widening roads and constructing road overbridges.

States which would come up with innovative ideas will clinch the loan and the State has to compete with them. The loan will be repaid by the Government of India and the State Government will get it as a grant.

Study to track death on railways

Monday, 05 April 2010 11:45 administrator

Hindustan Times 05.04.2010

Study to track death on railways

Alarmed by the increasing number of deaths on the city’s suburban network, a new World Bank-funded rail urban project has included a study on the pattern of track crossers and commuter fatalities.

On an average, 4,000 passengers die every year while commuting on suburban trains.

Most of the accidents occur due to unsafe riding on trains, trespassing on railway tracks, suicide attempts, falling from trains or electrocution while sitting on rooftops of running trains.

This is believed to be the highest number of fatalities per year on any urban or suburban railway system in the world.

Social activists, however, have claimed that the railway authorities do not have proper data on the fatality rate.

“A large number of commuters die simply because of the railways’ ignorance because injured commuters are not rushed to the hospital in time. I had filed a petition in the high court highlighting the problem, for which the railways were pulled up,” said Samir Zaveri (38), who lost his legs in a train accident in 1989 and has now turned into an activist.

“The commissioning of such a study is a good effort, but all those injured found along the track are not trespassers. Those who fall from trains after hitting electric poles are also counted as trespassers. I have complained to the World Bank about the problem,” added Zaveri.

“A study on railway trespassers is being planned under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project-2A, which is in preparation. This exercise will help study accident patterns, assess hazard risks and accordingly, identify mitigation measures for addressing safety issues in suburban railway operations,” said Atul Agarwal, transport specialist, World Bank, in a letter acknowledging Zaveri’s complaint.

Zaveri said more than 21,000 people have died in the last five years while commuting on the city’s two railway networks, on an average of 11 per day.

He alleged that the authorities do not have co-ordination among themselves and give different statistics for the same year.

Last Updated on Monday, 05 April 2010 11:54

More Articles...