Context: Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the construction of the Agra Metro Project in a virtual ceremony held on Monday. Following the inauguration, the PM said that the metro project worth Rs 8,000 crore will strengthen the mission related to the establishment of smart facilities in Agra. The Prime Minister said that more than Rs 100 lakh crore will be spent under the National Infrastructure Pipeline Project. Work is also being done on the Multi-modal Connectivity Infrastructure Master Plan. He added that efforts are on to attract investment from all over the world to improve the country's infrastructure. Meanwhile, union minister for housing and urban affairs Hardeep Singh Puri last month said Covid-19 could lead to behavioral change in urban mobility and also give an opportunity to align urban transport towards long term development goals. With social distancing norms and other precautions in place due to the pandemic, cities are seeing a rise in transport options like cycling. The pandemic has also led to a decline in the use of public transport across the world. According to the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, 90% of all reported covid-19 cases are from urban areas which have become the epicenter of the pandemic. 
Status of Urban Transport in India
Major Modes of Public Urban Transport

• Buses are the prime mover for both inter-city and intra-city travels in most urban centres. However, in recent times there has been a loss in ridership. Other modes include metro rail, trams, and local trains.
• Intermediate public transport system (IPT): All Indian cities feature large numbers of auto rickshaws, taxis, cycle rickshaws and forms of informal car pooling
• The range of public transport services vary considerably across cities. For example:
• Only Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai have extensive suburban rail services whereas Delhi has limited suburban rail services.
• Currently, 10 Indian cities have operational metro rail, with Delhi having the largest metro rail system
• Kolkata has India’s only remaining tram system

Problems faced by Urban Transport in India

• Unprecedented Transport Growth: According to Niti Aayog, the number of registered motor vehicles has increased from 5.4 million in 1981, to 210 million in 2015 . This rapid growth in demand in the absence of widespread public transport system has caused a rapid increase of private car ownership in India.
• Inadequate Public Transport: According to government data, there are about 19 lakh buses in the country and only 2.8 lakh of them are run either by state transport undertaking or under stage carriage permits.
• China has about six buses for 1,000 people while India has only four buses per 10,000 people
• Further, a CSE study points out that the share of public transport is expected to decrease from 75.5% in 2000-01, to 44.7 per cent in 2030-31, while the share of personal transport will be more than 50%
• Urban Pollution: According to a WHO study 14 out of the top 15 most polluted cities in the world belong to India. Vehicular pollution has been one of the major contributors to rising urban air pollution in Indian cities along with other factors such as construction activity, road dust and industrial activity.
• Urban Congestion: Major Indian cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru are ranked among world’s most congested cities. For example: Average speed for vehicles in Bengaluru is reported as 17 km/h. These high levels of congestion have huge economic implications in the form of reduced productivity, fuel waste, and accidents. Further, there is an acute shortage of parking spaces both on and off the streets in the urban centres.
• Road safety- Traffic injuries and fatality: According to the Report ‘Road Accidents in India-2016’, road accidents in India have decreased by around 4.1% in 2016 from 2015. However, fatalities resulting from these accidents have risen by about 3.2%. The major reasons for traffic crashes include poor quality of roads, poor traffic management, unsafe and overcrowded vehicles and unsafe driving behaviour.
• Equity Issues: Unplanned urbanization in India has led to gentrification (as per upper and middle socio-economic class) of city centres and lower income groups are forced to live in peripheral suburbs which have increased their cost and time they allocate to commute. Most of the lower income groups and urban poor fail to afford private transport and even public transport are high for them. For example, a CSE study ranks Delhi Metro as the second most unaffordable metro (after Hanoi in Vietnam) with lower income group people spending nearly 22% of their monthly transport on Delhi Metro fares.
• Mobility for women: Safety or the lack thereof, is the single biggest factor constraining women’s mobility. According to Action Aid UK, 79% of women in major Indian cities reported being harassed on streets. Overcrowding in public transport adds to insecurity and safety issues with a large number of women complaining about harassment in public transport across major Indian cities like Delhi and Mumbai.

Government Initiatives to address Urban Transport issues

• Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission JNNURM, 2005: JNNURM was launched in 2005 and closed in 2014 (now succeeded by Atal AMRUT Mission). It attempted to improve the public transport system in larger cities through funding of public transport buses, development of comprehensive city mobility plans and supporting city transport infrastructure projects.
• National Urban Transport Policy, 2006: The policy envisages safe, affordable, quick, comfortable, reliable and sustainable urban transport through establishment of quality focused multi-modal public transport systems.
• Green Urban Transport Scheme, 2016: The scheme aims to improve non-motorised transport infrastructure such as dedicated lanes for cycling, pedestrians, increasing access to public transport, use of clean technologies and adoption of intelligent transport systems (ITS).
• Mass Rapid Transit/ Transport Systems (MRTS): The metro rail has come up as a favoured alternative of mass transport in Indian cities. In 2017, the government introduced new Metro Policy which aims to improve collaborations, standardising norms, financing and creating a procurement mechanism so that the projects can be implemented effectively.
• Bus Rapid Transport System (BRTS): BRTS segregates the movement of buses from all other transport modes, and introduces other changes in the road infrastructure that are associated with safety. BRTS is an important component of AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation)
• National Transit Oriented Development Policy, 2017: The policy framework aims to promote living close to mass urban transit corridors like the Metros, monorail and bus rapid transit (BRT) corridors.
• Sustainable Urban Transport Project (SUTP): The project in partnership with Ministry of Urban Development and UNDP aims to promote environmentally sustainable urban transport in India.
• Personal Rapid Transit System (PRT): It is a transport mode combining small automated vehicles, known as pods, operating on a network of specially built guideways. In 2017, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) had called the expression of interest (EOI) for launching India’s first driverless pod taxi systems on a 70 km stretch from Dhaula Kuan in Delhi to Manesar in Haryana
• National Public Bicycle Scheme (NPBS): In 2011, NPBS was launched to build capacity for the implementation and operation of cycle sharing systems across the country. The first public bicycle sharing (PBS) initiative — Trin Trin was launched in Mysuru.
• Promotion of Electric Vehicles: Indian Government plans to have an all-electric fleet of vehicles by 2030. For promotion of electric vehicles FAME (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (hybrid &) Electric vehicles. Under FAME, the Centre subsidizes the cost of electric buses and has sanctioned 390 buses in 11 cities (as of April 2018).

Institutional Challenges

• Gaps in Laws and regulations: There is no central, state or local level that comprehensively covers urban transport requirements and issues in Indian cities. Further, the weak enforcement and lacunae in existing laws such as the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 fail to manage fast motorization in Indian cities
• Poor Institutional Framework: Functions of Urban transport system are performed by multiple agencies under the central, state and city governments which lack coordination and makes accountability difficult.
• Land as a Barrier to development of Transport Infrastructure: High cost of land acquisition and time-consuming processes has been a major hindrance to integrated urban transport infrastructure. For example, land acquisition issues have delayed the East-West metro Corridor Project in Kolkata over years.
• Human Resource Challenges: Lack of urban transport skills amongst city and state officials is a major challenge in effectively implementing transport projects.
• Absence of Reliable Transport Data: The lack of standardised, systematized data and scientific analysis of urban transport statistics is a major barrier in assessing impact of various ongoing government initiatives and formulate a robust urban transport plan
• Lack and Delay in release of funds: The urban infrastructure projects have a long gestation period which requires locking of huge amount of funds for a longer period of time. This creates problems in accessing the required funds, thereby impacting timely completion and maintenance of projects

Road Ahead

• As far as urban mobility is concerned we need to ensure that we have a good integrated system which ensures that all types of transport system is connected with each other. We need to have last mile connectivity and feeder service too. Better planning and better design is what we need to look forward to and hopefully getting a card like system which works for every mode of transport in the country. There by bringing about lot more convenience, reduce congestion and ensure that we have utmost safety as well is what we need to do going forward.