Page 81 - TT mag Oct-Nov -Digital

URBAN MOBILITY

transit innovation can be holistically nurtured.
In summary, despite the 50 plus schemes and
regulatory reforms enacted by the Government
of India to promote innovation, the public bus
systems have witnessed limited examples of
innovation integration. As an initial step to address
this, WRI India supported by FedEx, launched the
Better Bus Challenge. The aim of the challenge is
to generate evidence on how young enterprises
and transit agencies can work outside traditional
models of engagement to implement innovative
solutions for enhancing bus transport. The
Bootcamp held as a part of the project allowed 12
the lack of a ‘single window’, makes establishing enterprises from across the globe to engage with
connections with public agencies a tedious and bus agencies in India to develop their solutions as
time-consuming process for private enterprises. per the on-ground needs of our cities. Currently,
the three winning solutions - Cityflo Mumbai, Cell
Public agencies are also sceptical about the
ability of young enterprises to execute large Propulsion and Small Spark Concepts are working
scale and investment-heavy government projects. with three different transit agencies to pilot, test
Then again, governments willing to work with and scale their solutions.
new enterprises find it challenging to reach out India has established itself as one of the
to private enterprises due to a lack of awareness forerunners of innovation in the mobility
about their solutions, distant geographical ecosystem. Technologies and service models
locations and limited networking capacities. developed by private enterprises have the potential
Financially constrained transit agencies are unable to transform public bus systems. It is crucial
to dedicate technical and financial resources that public transit agencies enact the necessary
for identifying, leveraging and testing the new regulatory, financial and institutional reforms to
solutions. The situation is aggravated further due ease and regularise their collaboration with young
to institutional challenges such as the absence of private enterprises. In today’s fast-changing
a unified transport authority that is empowered mobility ecosystem, not taking advantage of the
to take all decisions on mobility in the city. This innovative solutions offered by the private sector
inhibits the development of an ecosystem where is an opportunity lost as a nation.

www.trafficinfratech-com-500653.hostingersite.com October-November ’18 / TrafficInfraTech 81