New Delhi: While news of Metro breakdown make to newspapers, other woes related to city transport system seldom get reported. On one hand technical glitches in Metro lines seem to have become a regular affair for commuters using the corridor; on the other side, the story of other modes of the transport is no better.
Delhi is growing extremely fast with separated zones for living, working, studying, shopping and leisure. As a result, people need to travel fairly long distances requiring them to use motorised vehicles. They are bound to share auto-rickshaws, cabs, DTC buses and e-rickshaw rides in hazardous conditions.
Although, Metro is the perfect microcosm of a populous city nowadays as people prefer it to avoid traffic jams but it is now under strain to accommodate the growing population in the country’s capital city.
A UN report indicates that Delhi has become the world’s second most populous city which shows that people from smaller towns and three-tier cities are continuing to move in the Capital to find work and avail the creature comfort a big city has to offer. But, instead of comfort they end up suffering problems due to the poor public transportation system of the city.
Delhi still has not been able to provide an efficient public system for thousands of office-goers and residents, particularly women.
Considered the backbone of public transport in Delhi, DTC is struggling to stay on road as number of buses has gone down by a third in the past five years. When the Aam Aadmi Party swept to power in Delhi in 2015, it immediately promised to bolster the city’s bus system and pledged to take the Delhi Transport Corporation’s strength to 10,000 vehicles by introducing premium buses to make car users to shift to public transport. It is now been close to 3 years, yet the government seems to drag its feet over the issue.
“The number of passenger carried per bus is reducing. It has resulted into overcrowding and overall the ridership of DTC has reduced from 158.67 crore in 2013-14 to 129.44 crore in 2015-16,” a DTC official said. The depleting fleet has affected the poor most as they are being forced to take the costlier Metro service.
It is clear from the data that for Delhi, new buses should be procured immediately so that more people can access bus services. Kailash Rana, a resident of Mahipalpur in South Delhi, when asked about the Delhi’s bus services, as he travels regularly by DTC buses, said, “To make people use buses, access to service should be within walking distance from home or office and bus fares should be priced less than the per/km cost of running a two wheeler.”
Now, talking about women, commuting to work and back home is a constant worry because in a city of 18 million people there are a very few safe public transport options. On this Neelam, who works in Delhi, travel everyday from Gurgaon said, “After struggling in Metro, I to take an auto from the Metro station to reach the office. The auto drivers sometimes demand extra money and when argued then even refused to go which makes my travel more difficult."
Auto-rickshaws provide last mile connectivity and provide easy access through congested lanes. It bridges the gap between public transport and door-to-door services, leading to significant portion of daily passenger relying on them but Neelam added, "The type of service quality they are providing, needs a passenger to think twice before travelling in autos."
Other Common problems women report while travelling in auto-rickshaws includes inappropriate touching, wolf-whistling and patronising behaviour, which makes it horrible for women to use public transport.
The city bus service and auto services are not the only thing that have been hanging fire; as same goes with taxis and cabs. People prefer taxis and cabs when they need services late at night as they don't want to walk. "Sometimes it is quite frustrating that after working till late night we book a cab to reach home but cab aggregators surge their prices astronomically. Also booking a cab has a waiting time of 25-30 minutes during the peak hours, and they even cancel the booking at last moment," said two colleague's -- Ankit and Mahesh.
Tired of the struggle, Delhi’tes sometime feels helpless. They feet there are problems which galore -- technical glitch, fare hike, rush, too much waiting time, lack of safety measures, whimsical drivers and unavailability of cabs among others.