ICT: the solution to Mumbai's transportation problems

Smart phones lend themselves to creating a digital infrastructure, which could alleviate some of Mumbai's transportation issues

Mumbai’s public transport, currently used by more than 90% of the commuters bears testimony not only to the broader, more pragmatic Mumbaikar spirit but also to the transport system’s historical efficiency and extensive coverage. The city's railway system – the ‘local’ – often hailed as the city’s lifeline, covers 319 km, services more than 7 million people every day and has the highest passenger density in the world. The bus system, run by the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST), is the world’s largest public transport body catering to more than 5 million passengers daily over 365 routes.  
 

But like most metropolitan cities in India, Mumbai’s public transport system is overburdened and challenged with an ever-increasing demand. The rising prosperity of the middle class and the continued migration from different parts of India to Mumbai has added to the woes of the already crippled transport infrastructure of Mumbai. While the road and rail length and the fleet capacity of the public transport have remained stagnant over the years, there has been a significant increase in the number of private vehicles on the roads of Mumbai. Around 450 new vehicles are registered in Mumbai every day, much lesser than Delhi’s 1,335, but large enough to throttle the erstwhile efficient transport system. The insufficiency of the current systems get highlighted every monsoon when the city practically comes to a standstill. Stories of people stranded for hours on the roads during monsoons are not uncommon. The second order effects of the crippled transport infrastructure are even more significant - the cost of business goes up dramatically as a result of traffic congestion, which results in a huge drain on the economy, the elevated pollution levels due to the rising CO₂ emissions has huge ramifications on the health and environmental fronts etc.

 
To combat these issues, Mumbai has recently embarked on the development of a metro and monorail system. While these new projects are a welcome addition, the new infrastructure would automatically warrant additional demand. These new projects have to be augmented with more prudent ways to manage the current demand that judiciously allocates the available capacity. It is in this dimension that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can play an instrumental role.  With the rapid spread of ICT in tackling urbanization issues across the globe, it is pertinent for Mumbai to embrace ICT to tackle its transportation issues. The pervasiveness of mobile phones and smart phones in India lend themselves to creating a digital infrastructure, which could perhaps alleviate some of the transportation issues in Mumbai. Capable of transmitting and receiving data, mobile phones could enhance the capabilities of the current systems and lay the foundation for a new-age supplementary digital infrastructure. The possibilities arising out of this digital infrastructure are endless – real-time scheduling and capacity planning of public transport, vehicle telematics, tracking information of vehicles to ensure secure and timely delivery of cargo etc. ICT can be a strong catalyst for a smart transportation ecosystem in Mumbai.

 

So, what is a smart transportation ecosystem?
 
Smart transportation system is essentially a collection of small interconnected sub-systems that are not only capable of reacting quickly to the demand placed on them by increasing or decreasing capacity in real-time but also efficiently predicting any potential transport infrastructure issues.
 
A smart transportation system comprises of three primary components – vehicles that take people and goods from one place to another, pathways (roads, rails etc.) that enable this movement and terminals (bus stations, train stations etc.) that serve as a starting or ending point of a journey. By overlaying ICT on these components, critical information could be gathered which the operators or users could then use to automate certain processes or make more informed decisions.  For instance, the congestion pricing mechanism in Stockholm was aimed at alleviating the congestion on some of the busiest routes in Stockholm by charging a variable cost for driving on those routes. A similar scheme in Singapore resulted in a decrease in traffic of nearly 25,000 vehicles during peak hours and an increase of about 20% in the average road speed. To increase the usability and accountability of this system, the citizens could automatically get their bank accounts debited for tolls and congestion charges and review the deductions and their traffic habits through a self-help online system. Such a system would help not only in an overall reduction in traffic volumes but also in a reduction of the massive economic costs associated with traffic congestion.

 
A smarter transportation system will also help build a system that is more safe and secure. With a very high number of accidental deaths because of road or rail accidents in a city, Mumbai currently has the dubious reputation of being the death capital of the country. In the backdrop of such statistics, safety and security is of paramount importance for its transportation system. If suitably used, ICT can help monitor and detect security threats via surveillance or status tracking, thereby enabling a quick response with a shorter emergency response time. Advances in communication network security can ensure that the information is made available only to the authorized personnel. 

 
Transportation is an essential human activity and will continue regardless of the state of the transportation infrastructure. Although the current transportation system has served the city well over the years and has played an important role in its success, it is imperative for Mumbai to upgrade its current transportation system and leverage pervasive ICT to meet the growing demands of its ever-increasing population and to ease the economic and health concerns of its residents.
 
Satya Komaragiri, Garish Sood and Arpit Rai are students at Indian School of Business, Hyderabad and were participants of the Networked Society Cities Case Competition