Costly drive

Jan. 31: The Centre has asked Dispur to introduce a congestion charge for private vehicles to limit their movement in core areas of the city.

Congestion fee was introduced in London in 2003 to limit the number of vehicles in the central part of the city. Besides London, Singapore, Rome and Milan (Italy), Stockholm (Sweden), Santiago (Chile), New York (US) and Seoul (South Korea) are some cities which have imposed a congestion charge.

The Union ministry of urban development also asked the Assam government to find out the most congested areas here and do a proper study on various aspects of congestion charge according to the city’s requirement.

The ministry said mobility has become a huge challenge in medium and big cities because of congestion during peak hours, which is caused primarily by the excessive use of private vehicles.

“There is a need to resolve the congestion issue urgently for improving mobility of people. It may be partly resolved by adopting transport demand management (TDM) strategies to ensure the economic development of our cities is de-coupled from excessive motorisation. The authorities should encourage investment in sustainable options like public transport, cycling and walking,” said a letter from the ministry.

Transport demand management aims to maximise the efficiency of the urban transport system by discouraging unnecessary private vehicle use and promoting more effective, healthy and environment-friendly models of transport in general like public transport and non-motorised transport.

The letter said there may be certain core areas in the city where owing to demographic and business compulsions, it is difficult to decongest the areas.

In these areas, authorities may look at congestion charges to ease traffic bottlenecks. It also said excessive use of private vehicles on limited road space was inefficient use of precious urban land.

“There is thus a need to discourage use of private vehicles in selected core areas of the city to increase the mobility of people at large so they can reach their offices, workplace, business centres, shops and other places in time without losing valuable working hours,” the letter said.

The ministry has also asked Dispur for go for an intensive awareness drive among residents about the necessity of congestion charge so they can accept the fee levied. “The public has to be assured in a very transparent way that congestion charges are not there just to fill government coffers. Rather, the funds collected will be used to further improve public transportation and non-motor transport facilities in the core areas and provide other infrastructure for road users,” said the letter.

The ministry also suggested different ways of collecting charges.

“The most desirable and effective ways nowadays are electronic solutions, including online payment, mobile payment, prepaid and through vehicle identification either by cameras or boxes equipped in cars. The cities may adopt any of the technologies depending upon the availability of funds and local condition,” the letter said.

The ministry has also sent the charging system of a few cities to help the Assam government fix its own charges.