This image correctly and accurately captures the essence of what I always wanted to convey. Almost all Indian cities are crowded and the only cost effective solution to that is to privatize public transport. For a small license fee/tax allow anybody and everybody should be allowed to operate a bus to where ever they want to, whenever they want to.
Reason: A bus occupies far less space then what cars/autos or even motorcycle does. Also the per passenger fuel consumption, air pollution is also very less. The best part is that office goers can also catch a nap, make a few friends or even read the newspaper while in the bus. Hence making them more productive in office as compared to those who were behind the wheel for hours before they reach their destination.
Currently very few people commute by public transport because either there is no bus in their direction or when there is one, its frequency is too low or its too crowded. But that is because most bus services are in govt hands. The government administration kills creativity. It does not have enough resources to satisfy the needs of the public, the routes and stoppages are decided by a babu who has never been to that locality hence does not properly represent the needs of the public… and hence poor service. Unfortunately, the political nexus and the pilferage does not allow the city administration to be able to run their mass transit services profitably. Hence in most places they are in the state of neglect.
The government could continue to subsidize this poor service, or simply allow private operators to supplement their operations. A private bus operator will run his busses for longer hours, design his routes and timings more efficiently resulting in converting it to a profitable venture (while charging the same fares). So essentially any city administration can reduce its traffic congestion without spending even a single penny 
The people get benefited because now there always will be a bus in their direction of travel so they will not have to resort to more expensive means. Not only that the license fees, and the taxes paid by the bus operators would pay for the much needed development of the city roads. But alas, only if the people and the politicians listen 
Great post. I am waiting for the day, when this happens. By the way, sometime back, I also posted about the same topic.
Comment by Satish — December 17, 2007 @ 12:34 pm
actually private buses have been running successfully for decades in the communist state of Calcutta. in Delhi, there are charted buses (which run only during office hours) and are a great success…..
blue line/red line failed because of the government’s inability to prosecute the offenders…
recently Pune started a Private/Public partisanship model and it has proved very successful and even profitable.
PS: please do provide the link to ur article or suggest points that are missing in this article
Comment by Ankur Aggarwal — December 17, 2007 @ 1:01 pm
goodpost nice pic too
u guys forgot the good or bad old best
the best ptc in this country handling
the largest load per day i think
but it also depends upon peoples attitudes
most people just dont care !
and in india lawlessness prevails
Comment by Prax — December 17, 2007 @ 5:49 pm
thanks.
i hope by best u mean “The Bombay Electric Supply & Tramways Company Limited”
bombay has a unique advantage… its settled along the coastline in a straight long stretch… so designing a public transport is easy. most non coastal city unfortunately are circular and this becomes a Mesh network problem.
but one has to agree that it is very punctual. passengers are a lot disciplined and stand in queues and there is not pushing/squeezing around…
Comment by Ankur Aggarwal — December 17, 2007 @ 6:22 pm
yes
with the kinda population here it is a very big challange though ur arguement holds good
the busses used to be punctual now u have to wait a good 15 to 30 m for them
lastly and importantly we mumbaikars obey rules
passengers are a lot disciplined but to be true with the rush pushing and squeezing is inevitable
plus with 40% janta from bimaru states things r not that good nymore and lawlessness is creaping in
Comment by prax — December 18, 2007 @ 12:14 am
don’t ever belittle BIMARU states….
they r like the Mexican laborers… who travel hundreds of miles, do all the important jobs which nobody would even touch and build the civilization for the rest of the world…
NO CITY can even run or grow without their sweat.
states like Kerela and Chennai, in spite of having having good infrastructure, education and all prerequisites of transforming itself to a developed super power … has been left behind in the race.
if mumbai kicks them out, the growth of the entire region will stop… or worse the city might fall into ruins because there will be no construction workers, no one ready to clean the city, move goods around etc.
Comment by Ankur Aggarwal — December 18, 2007 @ 5:39 am
You article covers all the points. I have not covered anything extra. I was looking for private buses in Bangalore, and Hyderabad. Eventhough there are few private buses in both the cities, they are very less in number.
The link to my post is,
http://tnsatish.blogspot.com/2007/10/bus-service-in-cities.html
Comment by Satish — December 18, 2007 @ 7:16 am
hyderabad has multi nodal transport system .. where the trains stops and bussespickup points are same .. hence enabling passengers to change their mode of commute seamlessly.
bangalore also has a good public transport system…
but the reason why private transport system is very few in number is because (at least in bangalore)
1) no recognition.
these guys are not allowed to register themselves, and hence do not have any official route assigned to them.
also hence they are not allowed to pick up passengers from the designated bus stops…. this severely restricts their market to few routes where the load is too high that public buses simply fail.
2) harassment by police.
not being recognized, the police accuse them of hitch hiking (which is banned in india).. and exploit them… take bribes and make their routes unprofitable.
3) and the most important tariff control.
government thinks that it is doing a social service by lowering the fares, but in reality it is curbing the profitability and the incentive of the operator to expand its operations.
its simple.. in a free society the private operator might initially charge exorbitantly.. but then seeing the immense profits he is making, 10 more buses will start plying on that route. and immediately the fare will go down…
this is what happens in inter city buses.. everybody is free to charge what pleases them.. but because of market forces the fares r under control.
Comment by Ankur Aggarwal — December 18, 2007 @ 7:49 am
it is not about belittling them -
i know how economies run but what i have noticed i have posted. Most of the taxi drivers from that region have no regard to following rules – they cut lanes and break rules with beligerance. their only motive is profit maximisation and sendin home money
at a level i empathyse with them but
sadly they bring their lawlessess wt them too
and that cant be avoided.
Comment by prax — December 18, 2007 @ 9:51 am
its a fault of the government..
they failed to invest in basic amenities like education, health care and sanitation…. and hence install the sense of civilization and decency in the masses….
no wonder the lowest strata of the society which have never even stepped inside a school live life on the edge.
Comment by Ankur Aggarwal — December 18, 2007 @ 10:07 am
Well dont those people elect people like laloo and mulayam?
it is a vicious cycle
Comment by prax — December 18, 2007 @ 12:16 pm
and the responsible citizen in a democracy always ends up payin the price
Comment by prax — December 18, 2007 @ 12:19 pm
In kerala there is more number of private buses plying its roads. but then in cities like cochin, although its solving the problems of commuters, its creating havoc due to less regulations and high speed chases.
But then I support privatisation, coz only when there is competition there will be more commuter friendly buses around.
Comment by Xylene — December 18, 2007 @ 1:37 pm
@prax…
i know it looks like a vicious circle… but it is not too hard to break it…
all u need to do is to educate the masses.
Have u read India unbound by Gurcharan Das? its an amazingly good book. it analyzed india’s past 100 years in a very lucid way.
@xylene…
that is what i could never understand.. all the trucks, autos, taxis, tractors and lorries are operated by private individuals… and some of them live multi axle volvo trucks are many times larger than these buses… yet people never complained
Comment by Ankur Aggarwal — December 18, 2007 @ 3:27 pm
@Ankur
Thats true, it doesnt really matter on how huge the vehicles are, we can corner down to one thing, “the attitude of the drivers “(including us) on roads !
Comment by Xylene — December 18, 2007 @ 3:38 pm