Delhi might soon lose its war against growing traffic and increasing pollution, without an effective and massive public transport system. Delhi needs big answers for its big problem and tough measures like the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system is one such solution in the future roadmap. This thumbs-up for the BRT came here today from Bhure Lal, chairperson of the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA), as well as Sunita Narain, director, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). "Once seen as one of the most polluted cities in the world, Delhi did succeed in arresting its air pollution through big-ticket solutions like the introduction of CNG. Our research tells us that Delhi could negate the gains made because of the phenomenal increase in vehicle numbers in the city. The answer will be to invest heavily in public transport, increase the bus fleet and restructure the bus service. But all this is not enough unless we can provide space for the bus to move and it is for this reason that the BRT is one solution," said Bhure Lal. "The fact also is that buses have not been replaced in India by the car or the two-wheeler as is the situation in other parts of the world. Instead, buses have only been marginalized. Even today, buses in this city, which has an old and disorganized public transport system, move between 50-60 per cent of its people," added Sunita Narain. "This is why we need a system that can efficiently move the bulk of the city passengers and even provide options for the rest to move towards bus transport and BRT provides us this option. Out of the roughly 16 million passenger trips in the city, buses cater to roughly 9 million passenger trips. As part of its effort to control pollution, EPCA is working on a four-pronged agenda. Agenda: Increase buses The first task is to increase the number of buses. EPCA has in its reports has noted that Delhi is short of the 10,000 bus target for buses set by the Supreme Court. The city has since ordered 500 new buses and placed tenders for another 4500 buses. EPCA is monitoring progress Agenda: Revamp bus service EPCA has also noted that the Delhi bus service needs re-structuring so that it is efficient and convenient. Delhi government has submitted plan for revamp of bus service-clusters of bus routes have been made and tender opened. EPCA monitoring progress Agenda: Increase public transport and connectivity between NCR towns It is surprising to note that there is no connectivity between Delhi and neighbouring cities. For instance, there is no bus service between Delhi-Gurgaon. Now a memorandum is being signed between states for public transport in NCR, only on CNG. Agenda: Provide buses space to move within cramped road space In late 2005, Delhi government has proposed the BRT to the Hon'ble Supreme Court has one option to increase bus transport efficiently. The Court accepted its proposal and asked EPCA to monitor progress of the corridors. "It is important to note that Delhi is running out of road space and options" says Bhure Lal. Consider: Delhi already has 21% of its land area under roads Between 1996 and 2006 road length increased by 20%. Cars increased by 132 per cent So road space decreased, not increased In 2001; 8.5 km available per vehicle In 2007: 6 km available per vehicle This will decrease further as the city adds about 1,000 vehicles each day on its roads. The only option is to make the transition to public transport. "The BRT corridor will provide space to the over 60 per cent of people in Delhi either travel by bus, or bicycle or walk to work. We know that cars take 75 per cent of the road space, but carry just less than 20 per cent of people. It is time we gave the bus its due space on our roads. Also, an improved bus service will certainly attract more commuters," added Narain. "There is no doubt that there have been problems in its implementation. But that does not mean that we should give up on this big idea. We will have to learn from this experience and do even better in the remaining corridor. We believe that Delhi, which is faced with the same problems across all its roads, has no other option but to turn towards solutions like the BRT system. Like the transition to CNG, which also went through a lot of problems before we got benefit of its gain, this transition will also take time," said Bhure Lal and Narain. (To contain Delhi's growing air pollution and congestion, BRT is a step in the right direction-says Bhure Lal of the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) and Sunita Narain, director, CSE)