DC Planning to Introduce Electronic Road Pricing System for Private Vehicles

DC Planning to Introduce Electronic Road Pricing System for Private Vehicles

Mangaluru: A meeting on developing a plan to ease traffic congestion was held at the DC office here, on February 5.

Addressing the mediapersons DC Sasikanth Senthil explained how urban development was progressing today, making life comfortable for vehicles while turning public spaces private. “But, the reverse of this should happen. Life for the public should be made more comfortable rather than for vehicles and more public spaces should be created. Only these two things will make a city livable as it continues to grow. Rather than just have a smart city, we need to have a livable city first. This is the policy decision that we have to make. When we design roads, it should also accommodate traffic in the future. Traffic congestion is never going to stop. We have to increase public transport – buses, metro, etc. – while reducing private movement,” he said.

But how do we go about it? Citing the example of Singapore, the DC talked about introducing the Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) system for private vehicles, with a card being required to charge if the private vehicle wants to continue being operated. Sensors are incorporated into the road, and as a vehicle passes through such roads, it is charged a fee that will be paid to the corporation. “This could be very essential for Mangaluru since we have small windy roads that are over stressed with private vehicles. This is an easy way of controlling or discouraging vehicles. That will pave the way for reducing the carriage way while increasing sidewalk width for pedestrians. If you look at the sidewalks that we have now, it is difficult for even one person to walk on the without obstructions. You come across poles, breaks in pavements whenever there are houses in the path, etc,” he added.

“Pricing and congestion taxation is something that we have to implement. This will help generate revenue for the corporation while also cutting down private vehicle density on smaller roads.” The DC also said that before implementing these changes, a dependable public transport system must be established. He concluded saying, “While developing Mangaluru as a smart city, we should also be the first to implement ERP. We also need to open our waterways, which will help develop tourism in the city. We need to make our city more friendly to pedestrians, work on a policy to implement ERP and develop our public utilities.”