HYBRID RAPID TRANSIT SYSTEM – A HYPOTHETICAL

APPROACH TO UNITE METRO AND BRTS SYSTEM FOR

BALANCED AND SUSTAINABLE TRANSIT SYSTEM – CASE
STUDY, KOLKATA
Debashis Sarkar,
MTech (Urban Planning)
Department of Civil Engineering
SVNIT, Surat, 395007

Dr. Krupesh A. Chauhan

Associate Professor
Department of Civil Engineering
SVNIT, Surat, 395007

Abstract
Kolkata Metro is the first and only underground metro station implemented in India. Due to
increase in population, the Metro Railways is facing a huge public engagement in different
peak hours of the day, which also directly or indirectly effects on the regular traffic and
pedestrian flow over the major roads in the city. So, an Alternative solution for transit system
is needed in Kolkata, along with Metro Railways. Here an attempt is made to introduce BRTS
system in Kolkata, also merged with the Metro System as ‘Hybrid Transit System’ for better
and sustainable development of the city.

Key Words: BRTS, Metro, Transit System

Introduction The North-South corridor is most

To balance the public overflow in Metro,
Kolkata city is trying to find an alternative
Transit System and introduced BRTS
system to be implemented by 2018,
although the progress was not that effective
till date because of the extension projects of
Metro Railways. So, this incorporates an
approach to develop a hybrid transit system
with implementing BRTS system corridor
along with the underground Metro corridor,
merging both in a single system. It will help
the fulfil the need of public as well as will
maintain the balance of ridership in both
systems.
Need of Study
Different facts impacting on this topic has
been stated below -
▪ The Kolkata Metro is facing
overcrowding with increase of
population and migration in the city.
affected corridor for this public
overflow.
▪ The population of Kolkata is
increasing. The yearly average
growth rate is 0.84%. In 2020, the
population was 14.85 million
whereas it became 14.974 million in
2021. So, accordingly the ridership
will also get increased and a defined
system is needed to be implemented
to address the issue.
▪ The public demand in the peak
hours gets highly increased, and all
the metro runs exceeding its
capacity at that time. So, an
alternative transit system is in need,
along with Metro.
Study Area Profile
Kolkata is the third largest municipal
corporation in India with a population
density of 25000 per sq km (as shown in fig
1). The city also supports another 5.5
million floating population. This includes a
slum population of 1.5 million.
The Metro Railway project from Dumdum
to Tollygunj was sanctioned in 1972. But
now this line has extended from Noapara to
Garia (as shown in fig 2.). Now, for better
connectivity, Kolkata Metro is constructing
East-West Metro Corridor, connecting
Howrah Railway Junction and Salt Lake,
the satellite town of Kolkata city.
Fig.1 Density of Population in Kolkata Urban Agglomeration
Area (Source - ijairjournal.com)
Fig.2 North-South Corridor, Kolkata Metro Railways
(Source - ijairjournal.com)
Although, some part of the East-West
corridor has been open to public; the North-
South corridor is the prime one to connect
the whole city and faces the most footfall.
8am -12am in morning and 4pm - 8pm in
evening has generally been the peak hours
of public engagement. Although footfall
increases in holidays and festivals’ times.
There were 288 daily train trips carrying
more than 700,000 passengers before
COVID. Although post COVID time, the
metro journey was available through digital
ticketing system and Metro cards, which
effects on the ridership count. Till
September 2021; almost 2.57 lakhs people
has been travelling in daily basis with 192
daily train trips. The number is increasing
gradually.
People from different profession travel
through Metro. Although percentage for
business and educational purpose is major
(fig 3).
Fig.3 Purpose of journey in Kolkata Metro Railways
(Source - ijairjournal.com)
The city is opening itself again in post
COVID time, it is estimated that the metro
will experience more than 6 lakhs
passengers daily in 3 months.
Objective
The main objective is to implement the
BRTS corridor, on the same corridor of
North-South Metro and to merge both
system into a single Hybrid Transit System
to make the public transport more balanced
and enhanced in the city.
Methodology
To find out the change and present situation
of metro railway in Kolkata city various
secondary data has been used. In cases for
the detailed analysis primary survey has
been done. For the analysis various
statistical techniques have been used. To
represent the data and for the visual
purposes some cartographical techniques
has been used.
Scope of Work
BRTS system is itself a very sustainable
development approach for any city. It
promotes public Transport system, as well
as provides safe journey for the passengers.
So, introducing BRTS along with Metro
System will open various scopes of
development and green approach.
▪ Universal accessibility will be the
focus, people with different abilities
can also get access and travel
through this system.
▪ The balance in ridership can be
another important aspect.
Introducing BRTS will lead people
to use both buses and metro, which
will maintain a balance in both
systems.
▪ Traffic control will also be better
through this system, as pedestrian
engagement will be minimal in the
peak hours through this.
▪ Traffic flow will be more
systematic; inexperienced and rush
driving of different public bus
service can be addressed with this
issue.
▪ Time management can be
improved. Waiting time at signals
can be minimalized with this
system.
▪ Developing BRTS corridor will
lead road infrastructure
development with proper landscape
and other utilities, which will
promote an overall city
development with green and
sustainable approach.
Literature Review
By Tuhin Subhra Maparu and Debapratim
Pandit, ‘A Methodology for Selection of
Bus Rapid Transit Corridors: A Case Study
of Kolkata’.
Although the BRTS corridor is still under
Proposal phase. The first stage for
introduction of BRTS in any city involves
identification of potential corridors where
the improvements of bus transit facilities
can be undertaken. Selection of Bus Rapid
Transit corridors involves two aspects:
• Identification of possible BRT corridors;
and • Ranking or prioritizing of BRT
corridors for phasing.
A survey of recent literature suggests that
BRT corridor selection is done based on the
available right of way of major roads and
present level of bus service operated on
such corridors as in the case of Delhi
(TRIPP, 2005) or using concentration of
existing bus service, ridership and road
characteristics inventory as in case of
Miami (CUTR, 2004). In general, existing
and future land use, population density and
employment need to be estimated to predict
ridership of BRT. At the same time it
should also be checked whether it is
possible to implement BRT considering the
existing road infrastructure and traffic
characteristics.
Bus transit system in Kolkata is operated by
public and private operators, which include
71 Calcutta State Transport Corporation
(CSTC), 30 Calcutta Tram Company
(CTC), 144 private and 98 minibus routes
in the city (Kolkata Gazette, 2003) in 10
zones, as shown in fig 4. In addition, there
are a few West Bengal Surface Transport
Corporation (WBSTC) and South Bengal
State Transport Corporation (SBSTC) bus
routes. The major issues related to bus
transit system in Kolkata are uncoordinated
and overlapping bus routes, unreliable bus
transit system, low LOS, increased air and
noise pollution, increasing number of
accidents due to rash driving and
overtaking, low average speed, intermixing
of other vehicles with the buses, narrow
right of way leading to traffic congestion
and poor transportation infrastructure.

Fig.4 Zone Division and Major Corridors in KMC
(Source Institute of Town Planners, India Journal 7 - 4, 21 - 36,
October - December 2010)
Fig.5 Initial Candidate BRT Corridors in KMC
(Source Institute of Town Planners, India Journal 7 - 4, 21 - 36,
October - December 2010)
After determining the initial BRT corridor,
the width and No. of lanes were determined,
for suitable development of the system. The
table 1 shows the roads with different
widths and no. of lanes, where BRT
corridor is proposed.
Table 1 Road width for different Corridors in KMC
(Source : Institute of Town Planners, India Journal 7 - 4, 21 - 36,
October - December 2010)
Among these, APC road, CR avenue, SP
Mukherjee Road, Strand Road shares Metro
corridor (underground) with 12
underground stations. And this research
paper focuses on the development of BRTS
corridor on this route.
Present Scenario – Data Analysis
Although COVID has affected the overall
system a lot, but it is now in regrowth
phase.
The city experiences approach of mass
floating population (5.5 million, CENSUS
2011) in the weekday’s mornings through
local or sub urban trains and they enter the
city through different major junctions
(Sealdah and Howrah junction). Then
public Bus Transit system and Metro are the
two major mode of Transport to their
different destinations.
Fig. 6 Population pressure in sub urban trains
(Source - ijairjournal.com)
The local daily passengers (2.4 million,
CENSUS 2011) then also travel at that peak
hour, along with floating population, causes
overflow of passengers in certain nodal
points and major metro stations.
Fig. 7 Population pressure in metro coaches
(Source - ijairjournal.com)
With 8 coaches and 320 passengers approx.
capacity each, the overall capacity of a
single metro train is 2500 approx. Although
in peak hours the passenger engagement
goes over 4000 (the overcrowding has been
shown in pic 1). Trains often run with
overload situations, and faces several issues
like Air-conditioning failure, accidents on
tracks, late timings in arrival and departure.
Pic. 1 overcrowded metro station in peak hours
One more major issue is universal
accessibility. The design of entrances for
the Underground Metro Stations lack with
different features like ramps, escalators for
differently abled people, senior citizens.
(the lack of universal accessibility is shown
in pic 2).
Pic. 2 Shyambazaar metro station gate without barrier free
planning
Proper AI system is not present in most of
the stations. In peak hours the ticket counter
is overcrowded. So, the passengers have to
wait for their railway ticket for their
journey. Sometimes not all the ticket
counters in a station remain opening, which
may be due to shortage of staff, also shows
the lack of proper infrastructure and
facilities.
This overcrowding in the peak hours makes
a huge impact indirectly on the regular
traffic flow. The Metro Gateways work as
bottleneck, blocking pedestrian ways with
huge public engagement from pedestrian
way towards underground stations or
towards outside pedestrian way from
underground stations. It causes pedestrian
engagement on the main roads and the
traffic gets delayed most of the time, than
its scheduled waiting time. This indirectly
increases the road blockages, accidents,
traffic chaos and noise pollution.
The passenger growth rate is also
increasing in rapid growth, and it is making
huge impact on the metro system. By 2025,
the estimated daily passenger will be 1
crore.
So, an alternative system parallelly is very
much in demand in the upcoming days,
which can solve problems both for the
Metro and the Traffic system in the ‘City of
Joy’.
Proposal – Primary Phase
The proposed BRTS corridor on the Route
of Metro Corridor can be introduced as
Hybrid Transit Corridor, where the BRT
stations can be directly connected and
accessible with the Underground Metro
Stations. The design of the stations will be
in multilevel, so that the passengers can use
existing Metro gateways to get their
destination, as well as hybrid BRT gateway,
to catch buses for their next trip towards
destination. It will make a limited and
systematic passengers’ movement, will
decrease pedestrian engagement on major
roads in the peak hours.
For this, APC road, CR Avenue, SP different newly added routes are shown
Mukherjee Road and Strand Road (The below in fig. 7.
existing North-South metro Route, 15
underground Metro Stations) is to be
developed as BRT corridor. (From
Belgachia to Rabindra Sarovar Metro
station, 17 km length in total). Road
widening, proper kerbs installation for
pedestrian ways is also needed in this route.

The BRTS routes should be identified properly.

Different routes from major junctions will be
very essential for passengers, so that they can
travel through this hybrid system only.

Proper awareness and Advertising will also be

needed to make people understand about the Fig.7 Proposed new routes with existing route
importance of this Hybrid System. Both the (Source – Kolkatametro)

Government authorities (Metro Railways and

KMC) can work together for this. It will also
help to develop the overall infrastructure of the
Hybrid system, and to make it more convenient
and comfortable.
Proposal – Vision for the Future
With the rapid Urban agglomeration, Kolkata is
expanding in rapid growth. With a 0.84%
growth rate in population, Kolkata has 14.97
million population in 2021, which will be 20.1
million by 2025. (World Population Review,
2021). So the daily public ridership is also
increasing rapidly, by 2025 it will reach 1 crore
approx. (as shown in Table 2).
Year Passenger on average weekdays
(Lakhs)
2009-2010 15.20
2014-2015 39.50
2019-2020 62.50
2024-2025 98.80
Table 2 Estimated daily ridership in public transport, in Kolkata
(source: Institute of Town Planners, India Journal 7 - 4, 21 - 36,
October - December 2010)
To tackle this huge population’s
mobilization in the city, government is
working on construction of new Metro
Routes. The existing route is being
expanded further, where as East-west
Metro route is under construction. The
If the Hybrid System becomes a successful
one after its implementation, the other
Metro routes can also be joined with this
system, which can develop the connectivity
of this city in a whole.
Also, the proposed BRTS corridor
throughout the city will also be
implemented with the success of Hybrid
BRT system. By this, the development
through Ring Road corridor will also be
very significant. Land use of Sub urban
areas will be developed, overall city
development will be possible with this
model.
Findings
This hypothetic project can be a landmark
for the public transit system in the city. This
will not only help the infrastructure
development of the Transit system, but also
will help to solve the existing traffic
problem in the city and will help for a
sustainable and green development.
An integrated system like this always
makes impact on the users. With
accessibility and comfort as the priority,
this system can also enhance the public
experience psychologically (kolkata metro,
n.d.)quality of life in the city, as well as can International Journal of Advanced
optimize a proper urban growth. (Calcutta, and Innovative Research.
India Metro Area Population 1950-2021,
n.d.)

Reference
▪ Bag, S., & Sen, D. (n.d.).
KOLKATA METRO RAILWAY
AND CUSTOMER
SATISFACTION:.
▪ Boral, E. (2019). TRAMWAYS –
AN ECO – FRIENDLY MODE
OF MASS. Researcher's World -
Journal of Arts, Science &
Commerce.
▪ Calcutta, India Metro Area
Population 1950-2021. (n.d.).
Retrieved from macrotrends:
www.macrotrends.net/cities/calcutt
a/population
▪ kolkata metro. (n.d.). Retrieved
from wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolka
ta_Metro
▪ Kolkata Population 2021. (n.d.).
Retrieved from
worldpopulationreview.com:
https://worldpopulationreview.com
/world-cities/kolkata-population
▪ Kolkata: Metro daily rider count
over 2.5 lakh. (n.d.). Retrieved
from timesofindia.indiatimes.com:
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
/city/kolkata/metro-daily-rider-
count-over-2-5l
▪ Maparu, T. S., & Pandit, D. (2010).
A Methodology for Selection of
Bus Rapid Transit. Institute of
Town Planners, India Journal.
▪ Sushobhan, M. (2020). Problems of
Metro Railway in Kolkata City.