While driving towards the Country Inn and Suites Hotel onWednesday the 21st of January morning, I was stopped onMI Road by Prahlad Singh, a traffic constable, because

Rahul Gandhi’s motorcade was hurtling towards the Collectorate. Itwas an interesting conversation that I had with the constable, as towhy they are not as active in regulating the unruly traffic in Jaipur. Hisnonchalant response was that their duties are mainly to assist thesmooth flow of VVIPs and the Jaipur traffic will remain chaotic. So, God help us!

This reminded me of two things: the citizens’ outrage in Mumbai, following thecarnage on 26th November, when people protested wildly against the securityarrangements being only for the VVIPs and not for the ordinary citizens, who arepaying taxes.

The second is that the traffic scenario in Jaipur is only getting from bad to worse.If one observes the body language of the few traffic constables on our roads, it onlyshows their callous disinterest in performing their duty. They are not trained, or evenmotivated, to perform…a serious matter which needs the attention of the policeadministration in the city.

When Rahul Gandhi addressed the conference on ‘Police Performance andPublic Perception’ at the Rajasthan Police Academy on January 21, 2009, onewonders whether this issue was raised at all. A study done by the notedMassachusetts Institute of Technology was presented at the event. It showed that alittle over a third, about 39 percent, of the people fear the police. The surveycovered 22,773 people and 3,312 police personnel in Rajasthan.

In terms of following traffic rules, we have seen how this fear works. It is evidentin how the two-wheeler riders wear helmets religiously, once the rule was mademandatory, and enforced. It is another story that many carry more than one pillionrider and there is no prosecution at all...it has become an acceptable ‘crime’.

In fact, it is the two-wheelers in Jaipur which are one of the worst offenders.Many of them drive in a suicidal fashion, with little concern for their passengers orother road users. I call these riders a hybrid between a mosquito and a pig. They flitaround you like mosquitoes and enter into gaps like pigs, if they can get their nosesin. Using a mobile phone while driving is another bane. Two-wheeler riders are oftenseen with their heads tilted cradling a mobile and talking. Four-wheeler drivers toochat on their phones in spite of it being illegal. There is no fear because there is noprosecution. Consequently, all cars have scars on their body due to the two-wheelers and four-wheelers dashing into them from all sides.

We, the people of India, observe the annual Road Safety Week from first Mondayof January for seven days. The shining feature of the Week in Jaipur was to bookdrivers with alcohol on their breath, thus causing some fear among those who oftendrink and drive. One good action that the Chief Minister has taken is to curb theopening hours of liquor shops, and cutting down their numbers as well. All thesemeasures will have a salutary effect on not only driving but other aspects of oursocial life.

1/2009

Conversation with PrahladSingh, Traffic Constable

I N S I D E

Water Crisis: The Urban WaterScenario

Poor Road Maintenance

Metro Train in 2 Years Pradeep S Mehta, Secretary General

This is an ideal way, I think to control traffic– we’ve put up a similar sign at the other end too!

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| 2 | City Matters • 1/2009

In the LimelightIn the LimelightIn the LimelightIn the LimelightIn the Limelight

With urban expansion, population and lifestyle changes,urban water supply needs often exceed supply and

availability. Most urban water supply authorities prefer torespond to this demand-deficit problem by augmenting existingsupply via tapping new distant and often costlier waterresources. But, there are obvious limits to this approach. Itcannot be a permanent solution, because it would not besustainable in the long run.

Almost all-urban water supply systems are characterised bypoor and unreliable water services, predominance of illegalconnections, high levels of water losses in conveyance anddistribution, low and a biased tariff structure with crosssubsidisation between domestic households, industrial andcommercial sectors, and low water charge recovery.

Jaipur, which has the second-highest urbanisation rate of 49.35percent, is facing immense scarcity of potable water. TheRajasthan Urban Housing and Habitat Policy has stronglyrecommended the need for a water policy, so that every housegets water by the year 2010. The situation is even worse inareas where water availability is restricted due to quality issues.

Over 500 lakh litres of drinking water is lost in Jaipur everyday because of the inefficiency of the government. The lossesare more than the amount of water supplied to all the villagesin Rajasthan.

Figures compiled by the State Government to assess the watersupply scene in the State indicate that the PHED is pumpingout more than 3,200 lakh litres of water daily for the peopleof Jaipur. Of this, 500 lakh litres of water never reaches theconsumers and goes waste, indicating a daily loss of nearly 22percent of the total supply. A major portion of this water islost while it is being transmitted and distributed from the PHEDstations to the consumers. The remaining goes unaccountedbecause of faulty and illegal connections.

The Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) hasformulated 12 drinking water supply schemes, which wouldtransfer water from surface water sources like Indira GandhiNahar Pariyojana (IGNP) and its various lift schemes, ChambalRiver and Bisalpur Dam to the deficient areas. The estimatedcost of these projects will be around Rs 6600 crore.

The main reservoirs of the PHED also have major holes. As aresult, huge amount of water seeps out. The study conductedby the PHED on water supply systems in the city revealedthat the entire system needs to be overhauled, with immediateeffect, to contain wastage of water. The State Government hasnot paid much attention to the water supply infrastructure inthe past two decades and as a result, the system has becomerusty and full of faults.

The Department has now launched a project for laying a newsupply system for the city, with the assistance of the Asian

TCS Project

Before Studies, Video Recording andConflict Analysis

One research component in the project – ‘Traffic CalmingStrategies (TCS) to Improve Pedestrian Safety in India’

– primarily includes Before Studies & Its Analysis. Out of the31 short-listed sites for the purpose of final selection for‘Before Studies’, the behaviour of traffic at each site wasobserved and analysed, and compared with the FirstInformation Report (FIR) data collected from various policestations across Jaipur city.

Till date, the team has successfully completed videorecordings at 21 locations across the city. Almost six andhalf hour per day recording is done at each identified studysite for four days.

All the video footages would be analysed, identifying thetotal number of severe conflicts per site against which somemeasures would be suggested to the concerned authorities.This will help to reduce the number of accidents in the future.The process has already started with the initially chosenseven sites: Gopalpura Crossing, Pinjarpole Goshala, Sector 3, HaldiGhati Gate, RIICO Gate, Galta Crossing and Phakiron Ka Mohalla.

Once the implementation of the suggested model takesplace, another important study part, i.e. ‘After Studies’ wouldbe conducted on sites, which would help these authoritiesto think of implementing similar measures across the city ofJaipur, reducing the number of ever increasing roadaccidents.

Water Crisis: The Urban Water Scenariow

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Development Bank (ADB). A survey of the city has beencommissioned with this objective. But, this is unlikely to checkthe wastage. According to official sources, the Departmentneeds huge amount of funds to stop the uncontrolled flow ofdrinking water.

1/2009 • City Matters | 3 |

Special ArticleSpecial ArticleSpecial ArticleSpecial ArticleSpecial Article

Jaipurites endure appall ing roadconditions across the city with the

hope that improvements in the upkeepand repair of roads will sooner than latercatch the attention of those incharge ofthis basic civic amenity. People fromvarious walks of life have stressed thatthe government should re-work on thecity infrastructure plan and havedemanded more than 50 percent of fundsfor maintaining road and sewerage systemin the city.

People of the city believe that poorcondition of roads is due to the lack ofcoordination between variousgovernment departments. Every now andthen, city roads are dug up by WaterWorks, Electricity or Seweragedepartment making the situation worse.Many feel that administration wakes uponly when a problem arises. For instance,only in rainy season does it think ofworking on sewer lines and roads. Someothers feel that while Jaipur city roadsare witnessing a heavy rush due toincrease in number of vehicles and lackof parking space is assuming criticaldimensions, the government isprioritising upgradation of the highways.

Faulty construction of speed breakershave added to the problems on the roads.These have been constructed onaccident-prone sites but many lack whiteand yellow stripes causing accidentsparticularly at night. Lack of propermarking on the speed breakers causesproblems for the drivers, as they cannot

see them from a distance forcing themto apply sudden brakes. Three speedbreakers were constructed on Gopalpurabypass but the concerned authoritiesfailed to put proper white-colouredstripes on the speed breakers. Similarsituation is evident in other locations likeJagatpura bypass, Royalty Tri-junction, PratapNagar, Vaishali Nagar, Shastri Nagar etc.

The concerned authorities ignore theguidelines of the India Road Congress,which specifically says that there shouldbe two types of speed breakers in theresidential and accident-prone areas.Roads with heavy traffic should havebreakers with a width of 5 metres and a10 cm raised centre and a slope of 1.5metre on both the ends. Roads with lighttraffic should have 3.7-metre wide speedbreakers with a 10 cm raised centreforcing the vehicle to cross at a speedlimit of 25 km per hour. Locations thatrequire zero limits should have speedbreakers in form of hurdles/rumble strips(multiple speed breakers).

After reviewing and analysing theexisting road conditions of Jaipur city,experts from Malviya National Instituteof Technology (MNIT) are of the opinionthat every speed breaker should beideally marked with yellow and whitestripes with a warning indication at adistance of 40 metres making driversaware of a speed breaker ahead.

The Chief Minister (CM), Ashok Gehlot,seems to be aware of the problems

experienced by common citizens whilemoving on any of the city roads.Expressing his concern over the highcasualty rates in road accidents in theState, he has constituted a high powercommittee to suggest ways to controlthe menace. The committee will suggestmeasures to control overloading, overspeeding and road quality improvement.

Importantly, the CM feels thatamendments/modifications in StateTraffic Laws are needed, which maycreate safer roads for all. He wants toidentify some credible non-governmentorganisations (NGOs) that are workingon traffic awareness programmes andcould be taken on board in creatingdiscipline on roads and awareness in bigcities of Rajasthan like Jaipur. He directedthe concerned Public Works Department(PWD) to carry out necessarymodifications in the accident-proneareas and install signboards and speedbreakers at junctions on a priority basis.He allotted Rs10crore for repainting ofroad marks, construction of the dividersand other such works.

This is the time for the concerneddepartments to not only act in terms ofbringing small, innovative and technicallyacceptable changes on the roads but alsoinvolve NGOs in creating awareness onroad safety issues and involvement oftechnical experts or referring to theroad research studies prior to bringingsome changes on city roads.

Poor Road MaintenancePoor Road Maintenance

Special Buses for WomenIn a bid to facilitate women going towork, the Rajasthan Roadways would belaunching eight special buses for womenin the city. The buses would criss-crossthe city and head towards the secretariatarea at specific hours and would allowonly women travellers.

According to Vijay Gandhi, GeneralManager, Operations, “We have beenstudying the flow of traffic for quite sometime. The office hours are very rushedand it becomes a cumbersome task forwomen to travel in buses during thesehours. Therefore, we decided to launchthe special buses for women”.

(ToI, 03.02.09)

Metro Train in 2 YearsCalling Jaipur the most suitable place forsetting up a metro network in the desertstate, Delhi Metro Rail CorporationManaging Director E Sreedharan saidthat if the government gave him a

News & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & Views

City MattersCity MattersCity MattersCity MattersCity Matters is a Bi-monthly newsletter published by Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS), D-217, Bhaskar Marg, Bani Park, Jaipur 302 016, India,Phone: 91.141.228 2821, Fax: 91.141.228 2485 Email: cuts@cuts.org, Web site: www.cuts-international.org, and printed by Jaipur Printers P. Ltd., Jaipur, India.CUTS offices also at Kolkata, Chittorgarh and New Delhi (India); Lusaka (Zambia); Nairobi (Kenya); Hanoi (Vietnam); London (UK); and Geneva (Switzerland).

Sources: DB: Dainik Bhaskar; RP: Rajasthan Patrika; ToI: Times of India

proposal, a survey could be completedwithin nine months.

However, he had not received anyproposal from the state government sofar. He said the final reports of settingup metro services at Pune, Cochin,Lucknow and Ludhiana have alreadybeen submitted and that wherever theproject was being implemented it wasbeing shared at 50:50 ratio between thestate and the Centre. (RP, 05.02.08)

Addressing School Fees Hike IssueThe unprecedented fee hike by unaidedschools in the city took a political turnwhen parents’ association met ChiefMinister, Ashok Gehlot.

He assured them of taking measuresto check the abrupt fee hike by schoolmanagement and claimed the issue is onthe government’s priority list. He said thatthere should be a regulatory body whichgoverns the fee structure of privateschools. (ToI, 28.12.08)

More Ventilators NeededThe government hospitals in Jaipur arefacing severe shortage of essentiallyrequired life saving equipment –Ventilators. Conditions are so acute thatsometimes the ventilators are beingallotted to the patients on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Most of the cases being brought toSawai Man Singh Hospital, Jaipur arereferred from other small hospitals, butunfortunately are not treated adequatelybecause of shortages in life savingequipments.

Out of 47 existing ventilators at SMS,eight are out of order. Same is the casewith J K Lone Hospital where thequantity is much less than required.Therefore, special budgets should beallotted to arrange at least 50 ventilatorsfor SMS, 20 for J K Lone and 15 for T BHospital. (RP, 29.12.08)

Electricity Boxes: A ThreatTaking a forward step towards theembellishment of Jaipur city, theElectricity Companies removed thehanging wires from the streets and laidthem beneath the ground but invitedmajor problems in the form ofConnection Pillar Boxes.

These boxes are mostly installed ininappropriate positions in narrow lanes,which is a cause of concern for thepeople living in these localities. Theyreported that the boxes not only causeaccidents but being haphazardly placedalso give electrical shocks to thepasserby. (DB, 16.02.09)

New Parking Policy for the CityWith the heavy increase in the numberof private vehicles, the parking problemsin Jaipur are getting worse day by day.The current parking policy – designedand enforced by Jaipur DevelopmentAuthority (JDA) – is being reviewed toprovide benefits to the contractorsunder Transfer of Development Rights.

A decision has been taken in ameeting of Traffic Control Board,conducted on February 09, 2009 toprepare a ‘Base Paper on Future ParkingPolicy’. P K Pandey, Chief Town Plannerhas been assigned to prepare this BasePaper to modify the existing parkingpolicy of Jaipur. (RP, 25.02.09)

CUTS, with the support of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH),New Delhi, has organised various road safety awareness programmes since

January 2009, which concluded on February 24, 2009. Activities include: EyeTesting Camps, Glare Recovery and Reaction Time Tests and Road Safety TrainingWorkshops for RSRTC drivers. Besides, two workshops on Section 134 of MotorVehicle Act were organised which attracted a variety of stakeholders includingschool children, teachers, medical practitioners, officials from traffic and transportdepartment, traffic wardens, representatives from civil society organisations etc.

CUTS put up a stall displaying road safety initiatives at Jawahar Kala Kendraon January 05, 2009 as per invitation from the Transport department in connectionwith the road safety week 2009. Honourable Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot visitedCUTS’ stall (with the staff) and appreciated CUTS’ concern towards road safety.Brij Kishore Sharma, Transport Minister was the chief guest of the workshop onSection 134 of Motor Vehicle (MV) Act held on February 20, 2009.

Road Safety Campaign

L TO R: PRADEEP S MEHTA, SECRETARY GENERAL, CUTS; BRIJ KISHORE SHARMA,TRANSPORT MINISTER; NIRANJAN ARYA, TRANSPORT COMMISSIONER; AND VIJENDRA JHALA, SP TRAFFIC