Thesis Tile: Transport Governance for Sustainable and user-

friendly Public Transport System – A case of Chennai Metropolitan

Area
Submitted by: M.Madhan 2190600024
Guided by: Prof. Dr. Abdul Razak Mohamed

ABSTRACT
‘Transport System Governance’ is the combination of market, political, and
administrative processes that defines options for transport investment and use;
prioritise among these options; implement the plans through law, regulation,
community action; and undertake research to measure the impacts of the transport
investments and policies, and provide feedback for system improvement. Good
governance, inclusive transport and socio-economic development are closely
intertwined. A failure in governance leads to poor decision-making processes,
compromises accountability and encourages public transport infrastructure and
services network that exhibits sub-optimal performance. The role of governance in
implementing the urban transport policy is critically important.

Current decision-making with regards to urban transport solutions can be

characterized as lacking in transparency, based on limited information, deficient data
and analysis, and whose impacts are poorly understood by the public at large.
Legislative amendments, institutional restructuring and new governance mechanisms
are being explored to enable changes. The more transparent and inclusive the process
of undertaking reforms, the greater would-be citizens’ confidence in the proposed
reforms and, equally importantly, their buy-in to the proposed reforms so that their
implementation can become smoother. Several countries have developed National
Urban Transport policies, plans or strategies to help guide investments. However weak
institutions, poor governance mechanisms, inadequate capacity of planners and policy
makers, and presence of vested interests have resulted in large gaps between stated
policy and actual implementation on the ground.

Chennai is the capital city of Tamil and Chennai Metropolitan is delineated as the
Study Area and it covers 1189 sq. There is brisk increase in the number of PMVs in
Chennai at a rate of 10 per cent per annum. If this growth continues, the study
estimates that the number of trips made by personal motorized modes will increase by

M.Madhan 2190600024 M.Plan (TIP) 2019-2021 1

 19 per cent over the next 15 years. This scenario also assumes that Chennai’s
pedestrians, cycle and public transport mode shares continue to decline. For a city like
Chennai, more than 70% of the population should use Public Transport. But it is
reported only 22.6% of population use Public Transport.

The Main aim of study is to Create an effective Transport governance Mechanism for
sustainable urban Public Transport system towards safe and easy mobility. The aim
of Study is divided into 4 Objectives. The First one is to study existing governance
system for public transport in Chennai and their relationship between different
governing bodies of public transport in Chennai. The second one is to access using
assess quality of governance in urban transport system based on principles of good
governance by using Transport governance Toolkit. The Third one to analyze the
extend of Transport Governance helps in achieving the sustainable urban transport
system. This is done by using sustainable urban transport index (SUTI) for accessing
urban transport system in Chennai and Key Performance Indicator and service level
bench marking financial Sustainability of Public transport for accessing performance
of Public Transport in Chennai. The fourth and final Objective is proposal oriented
which is to suggest means to enable efficiency in governance practice towards
sustainable mobility of the people in the city.

With all data collected, the intended analysis under each objective is performed to
conclude with observation and inferences. The analysis then led the foundation of
various proposals recommendations to satisfy the aim of the study. The study finally
concludes suggesting strategies towards improving the utility of public transport in
Chennai. Transport governance can be improved by creating mechanism for Unified
body for urban transport system for planning, operating and maintenance of efficient
public transport system. E- governance in public transport can introduced for
increasing ridership of Public transport by development of Guidance system
Application for user to Plan their trip using Public transport even before starting their
journey which tells users about schedule of different public transport system, Pricing,
etc The ridership can increase using improvement in infrastructure development for
public transport system.

Keywords: Transport Governance, Government Institutions, Public Transport.

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