The Comprehensive Transport Study for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) by the MMRDA has revealed that the rise in private vehicles and drop in public transport can be attributed to high latency in capacity enhancements in the suburban railway systems, delays in Metro implementation and high time-consumption on the road in public transport.
The study has revealed that ownership of 71 private vehicles per 1,000 population in 2001 increased to 248 private vehicles per 1,000 population in 2017. Easy auto finance followed by delay in implementation of fast modes of public transport like Metro along with overcrowding in suburban railway are some of the common reasons behind the rise.
In terms of public transport, the study — carried by MMRDA to understand transportation trend in MMR upto 2041 — has revealed that major transport mode split changes have happened during the last decade. Public transport share has been decreased from 78.1 per cent to 65 per cent, which is alarming, the study states.
The study further adds that the compound annual growth rate for public transport grew by 1.22 per cent since 2005 till 2017 for Intermediate Public Transport that includes auto and taxi growth rate, which was 6.62 per cent, and in case of private vehicles it was 7.09 per cent, the highest.
In terms of bus services in MMR, the study has revealed that bus transport may face major threat due to the growth of personnel vehicles and increase of rail-based transport such as Metro and Monorail.
“Bus transport share has been reduced from 26.3 per cent in 2005 to 20.3 per cent in 2017, and if all the proposed Metro rail projects are implemented, the bus transport share would decline from 20.3 per cent in 2017 to 9 per cent in coming two decades,” the study states.
