Time for a congestion tax

Minister Jaipal Reddy leads the thought process

Union Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy has taken an important step in developing public opinion on urban transport along the right lines by supporting the idea of a congestion tax in cities afflicted by severe traffic woes. Making it clear that he is not seeking to impose the idea which state governments will have to buy into, he has nevertheless tellingly pointed out that Singapore, which is a model for India’s upwardly mobile classes (those who own private cars), has such a tax. What needs to be clarified, however, is that a congestion tax on cars entering dense inner cities is not the first step but a subsequent one. Absolutely, the first goal for governments at all three levels (local, state and central) must be to create a clean and efficient mass public transport system which can be relied upon to get you where you need to go in reasonable comfort and in time so that you can leave behind not just your car but even the two-wheeler.

For this to happen, a key move which state governments must undertake, also underlined by Mr Reddy, is to set up unified metropolitan transport authorities for their cities which integrate and optimise the various modes of transport available — bus, bus rapid transit, monorail, light rail and metro — plus create the space for environment-friendly “non-motorised transport” like walking and cycling. For such a transport authority to formulate the right transport scenario, it has to work within the land-use master plan for the city. As many Indian cities have mushroomed without a land-use plan worth the name, not to speak of an integrated transport plan, the two have to be retrofitted, keeping in mind the massive urban explosion that is happening and will continue to happen for decades. An enormous amount of work has to be done by mostly the state governments (they have to empower the local governments) but it is at least reassuring that the Centre is acting as a thought leader, making the right noises, so that urban transport, as described by the urban development secretary, no longer remains an “orphaned child”.

Close on the heels of the overarching urban authorities have to come dedicated transport funds for cities as the investment needed is huge, calculated by the consultancy Wilbur Smith for the ministry in a 2008 report at a staggering Rs 4.35 lakh crore (almost equal to the GDP at current prices) for the country in the next two decades. A mixture of public, private and multilateral funding will have to be secured but the good news is that, if anything, global agencies are ahead of Indian states and car-owning classes in realising the central role of public transport in tomorrow’s cities. Mr Reddy has just inaugurated a project funded by the Global Environment Facility, UNDP and the World Bank which will spend Rs 1,400 crore to train a thousand people who can undertake the urban projects needed. There is a long way to go as many cities do not have any kind of public transport. To begin with, they need a decent bus service whereas the middle class imagination has been fired by the desire to possess a costly metro rail system.