Govt to discourage private vehicles, promote cycles

The draft national urban transport policy aims at curtailing the use of private transport vehicles and give impetus to public transport as well as non-motorised vehicles like the bicycle. A slew of measures has been suggested in the policy to improve the use of public transport.

These include special taxes on the use of private transportation like higher parking fee, additional fuel tax and cut in the parking space.

The draft policy also says the central government will encourage the levy of dedicated taxes to be credited to an urban transport fund that will be used extensively to meet urban transport needs.

"Such dedicated taxes can be in the form of a supplement to the petrol and diesel taxes, betterment levy on land owners or even employment tax on employers," the draft policy suggests.

Considering the high initial cost of developing public transport systems and the limited resources available with state governments, the policy suggests that the Centre set up special purpose vehicles and also offer financial support either in the form of equity or a one-time viability gap financing.

In order to make mass public transport systems a workable solution, the policy has also drawn frameworks to ensure certain service levels exist within this system to encourage even the affluent section of the population to use public transport.

To this end, the policy suggests that a basic service with subsidised fares and a premium service with better quality but higher fares should be introduced.

To encourage the use of non-motorised vehicles like bicycles, the policy suggests that sufficient safety measures like "segregated rights of way" must be provided for.

"Such access paths, coupled with safe bicycle parking places, will contribute towards increasing the use of public transport," the policy says.

The draft policy is now being sent to various ministries and departments under the central government to arrive at a consensus towards the formation of a final national urban transport policy.