Abstract
Cities and towns play a vital role in promoting economic growth and prosperity. Although less than one-third of India’s people live in cities and towns, these areas generate over two-thirds of the country’s income and account for 90 % of government revenues. In the coming years, as India becomes more and more urbanized, urban areas will play a critical role in sustaining high rates of economic growth. But economic growth momentum can be sustained if and only if cities function efficiently – that their resources are used to maximize the cities’ contribution to national income. City efficiency largely depends upon the effectiveness of its transport systems, that is, efficacy with which people and goods are moved throughout the city. Poor transport systems stifle economic growth and development, and the net effect may be a loss of competitiveness in both domestic and international markets. Although Indian cities have lower vehicle ownership rate, number of vehicles per capita, than their counterparts in developed countries, they suffer from worse congestion, delay, pollution, and accidents than cities in the industrialized world. This chapter provides an overview of urban transport issues and challenges in India. Rather than covering every aspect of urban transportation, it primarily focuses on those areas that are important from policy point of view. The chapter first reviews the trends of vehicular growth and availability of transport infrastructure in Indian cities. This is followed by a discussion on the nature and magnitude of urban transport problems such as congestion, pollution, and road accidents. Building on this background, the chapter discusses the policy measures to improve urban transportation in India.
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- 1.
During the years 2010–2011, publicly owned urban bus transport undertakings in India incurred an accumulated loss of Rs. 32,695 million which is equivalent to a loss of Rs. 20.20 per bus-km.
- 2.
CSTC incurred a total cost of Rs. 2,514 million, whereas its total revenue was only Rs. 654 million during the years 2010–2011.
- 3.
During the years 2010–2011, urban transport undertakings in India operated with around 24,000 buses and paid Rs. 1,899 million to the government in different forms of taxes such as motor vehicle tax, passenger tax, special road tax, etc. Therefore, on an average, every bus operated by urban bus transport undertakings in India faces a tax burden of almost Rs. 80,000 per year.
- 4.
Inverse elasticity rule asserts that the optimal percentage deviation of the price of any goods or service from its marginal cost should be inversely proportional to its own price elasticity of demand.
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Another version of this chapter has already been published in European Transport / Trasporti Europei (an International Journal of Transport Economics, Engineering and Law) in 2012 (issue no.: 52; paper no. 5; pp. 1–26). I would like to thank the managing editor of the journal for granting us permission for the same.
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Singh, S.K. (2015). Scenario of Urban Transport in Indian Cities: Challenges and the Way Forward. In: Dev, S., Yedla, S. (eds) Cities and Sustainability. Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2310-8_5
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