FEATURE-Master planning for sustainable and cost effective policy and project implementation in the transport sector

By Eng. /Planner Nihal Somaweera, Former Secretary, Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation

Master planning in any sector is vital for sustainability and cost effectiveness of project implementation. However due to a large extent of land requirement, competing land uses and high cost of urban transport projects, transport sector project implementation in urban areas is more challenging and require advance planning. 

Lands in urban areas are subjected to fast changes with the economic development of the country. Therefore implementation of urban transport projects need advance planning and reservation of space for these projects need to be done well in advance to minimise cost of land acquisition.

During the last “Aragalaya” time in many forums lack of master plans was highlighted. However, it was found that in most sectors master plans were prepared and those reports are lying somewhere without proper follow up. Similarly for the transport sector an Urban Transport Master Plan was prepared in 2014 with the financial assistance of JICA.

The target year for this master plan is 2035. The Master Plan includes recommendation for immediate, short-term, medium-term and long-term transport development plans.

The plan has made following recommendations for immediate implementation;

1. Legal framework for transport network development
2. Enforcement of urban land use regulations
3. Post evaluation of projects in the transport master plan
4. Development of urban transport database system
5. Further investigation of traffic safety
6. Promotion of health in the transport sector
7. Bus operation reforms
8. Feasibility study for project implementation

In 2015 with the change of the government a more integrated master plan called “Megapolis Plan” was prepared incorporating all other sectors. This plan was a more comprehensive one covering the entire Western Province and completed in 2017. However, the above recommendations for the transport sector remains the same and still valid for today’s context.

1. Legal framework for transport network development

Since transport infrastructure network development needs a longer time frame, and much larger land parcels its right of the way has to be identified and reserved for smooth project implementation in future. Although the master plan proposed a separate legal framework for implementation of master plan proposals, existing legislation such as urban Development Authority Law and Municipal Council Ordinance can also be used for this purpose. Urban Development Authority can incorporate the proposals of the master plan in their Town Development Plans and once those plans are adopted by the respective Municipal Councils, there is provision under Part V, Section 69 of the ordinance to control development of the land parcels identified for such projects. This provision was used to gazette new Street Lines for Base Line Road after the first Colombo master plan done in 1978. What is required is proper coordination between agencies such as Ministry of Transport, Road Development Authority, Urban Development Authority, Provincial Councils and Municipal Councils. The master plan noted the complexity of existing transport administration in the Colombo Urban Area with the present three tier government structure and suggested a Presidential Committee on Urban Transport (PCUT) to coordinate this kind of issues.

Further due to the present financial crisis the government has to abandon many mega projects which are found feasible such as Colombo Suburban Railway Project and Light Rail Transit (LRT) Project. In some projects land acquisition or resettlement has already been started. In such cases the government can make use of the above provision of the Municipal Councils Ordinance and declare new street lines for those roads/railways and stop all developments in those lands and reserve the Right of Way (ROW) for new infrastructure to enable project implementation once the funds are available.

2. Enforcement of urban land use regulations

In Sri Lanka enforcement of urban land use regulations are done by the urban local authorities (local authority areas declared under UDA Law) under the delegation of powers of the Urban Development Authority Law. The Urban Transport Master Plan recommended the importance of integrating land use and transport planning. Master Plan further recommended high density development with higher Floor Area Ratios (FAR) closer to public transport nodes such as railway stations. This will promote use of public transport by the residents with the improvement in transport infrastructure.

Further if more than one public transport mode comes into integration at a transit station, to make these public transit modes to function more efficiently and cost effectively at the station these facilities need to be vertically grade separated. Thereby you need less land space for transit operation when compared to at grade station and able to reserve more land for transit oriented urban development around such stations. By promoting transit oriented development around stations the government can recover reasonable portion of infrastructure investment on transport. This is also called Land Value Capture (LVC).  A good example is the Hyderabad Metro Project, which was planned to get LVC income around 45 per cent of the total project income.

This was the concept adopted by the ADB funded Kelani Valley (KV) Line Project in order to get the maximum benefit from the project. In the economic evaluation they have compared both at grade and elevated options and found elevated rail line option has more economic advantages.

3. Post evaluation of the projects

This is very important recommendation as by post evaluation the impact of the project on transport sector development and as well as to the economy can be examined. Although several mega projects such as the Southern Expressway, Katunayake Expressway, Outer Circular Expressway and several Fly Overs in Colombo were completed no proper post evaluation has been undertaken on these projects. This information is very useful in the appraisal of similar projects in future.

4. Development of urban transport database system

This master plan has developed a good database system for use in future transport and urban planning in Sri Lanka. The plan highlighted need to maintain and update this database either by the Ministry of Transport or University of Moratuwa as this will be useful in all future planning in transport and urban development sectors. As the Ministry of Transport lacks research capabilities it is more appropriate for the University of Moratuwa to establish a centre to maintain and update the database.

5. Further investigation in traffic safety

The master plan team while appreciating the Police for providing accident data, highlighted the need to undertake further studies and identify places where traffic accidents frequently occurs and identification of causes of accidents and recommended counter measures. The Megapolis plan has made the following recommendation for traffic safety;

1. Converting two-way operation of traffic to one-way operation where technically feasible.
2. Roadway and intersection widening and reconstruction
3. Priority for high occupancy vehicles
4. Relocation of bus stops and pedestrian crossings to minimise unnecessary conflicts and delays
5. Reduction of traffic density closer to schools

6. Promotion of health in the transport sector

Under this master plan a recommendation has been made for the development of pedestrian paths and bicycle lanes connecting parks in the urban area. This will contribute to healthy and environmentally friendly transport.

The Megapolis plan recommended usage of bicycle as a health mode of transport and recommended use of canal banks and reservation for bicycle tracks.

7. Bus operation reforms

The plan recommended immediate installation of GPS devices on buses for tracking the bus fleet and introduction of IC card ticket system to provide better service to passengers without a huge investment. Although the installation of GPS devices were partly implemented no action has been taken to introduce the IC card ticket to cover the whole bus transport except for a few pilot projects in selected bus routes.

8. Feasibility study for project implementation

This is the most important recommendation made by the Urban Transport Master Plan. The plan highlighted that every project identified under the master plan must go through the feasibility stage.

Accordingly, the plan recommended feasibility studies should be carried out for the following projects identified for implementation.

1. Mono rail project on Malabe- Colombo Corridor
2. Multi modal transport hub and multi modal centres
3. Modernisation of present railway
4. Introduction of Bus Rapid Transit and Bus Priority Lanes
5. Expressway network development
6. Fly over development
7. Transport demand management projects
8. Projects identified for traffic safety
9. Projects identified for promotion of health in the transport sector

Since the master plan covers only the subject of urban transport, the master plan team has used the recommendations and population forecast made by the Colombo Metropolitan Structure Plan done in 1997.

Since the Megapolis plan is a comprehensive land use plan incorporating all sectors has its own land use development strategies and forecasts and therefore, population projections and proposed structure and hierarchy of urban centres are different from the Urban Transport Master plan.

As an example the Transport Master Plan used population forecast for 2035 as 7.8 million and Megapolis plan used higher forecast of 9.2 million.

Due to these differences the Megapolis plan recommended higher capacity Light Rail instead of Mono Rail with a different network arrangement. Both plans recommended modernisation of rail network as railway infrastructure in Sri Lanka is very much outdated compared to other countries and modernization of bus operation.

Accordingly, a project feasibility for the LRT was undertaken by the Ministry of Megapolis and Western Development but it was not published as there is no legal or administrative requirement to do so. However according to the EIA report published in April 2018, it was reported that Estimated Economic Net present Value (ENPV) was Rs.169 billion. Since the project records a positive ENPV together with EIRR exceeding the discount rate of 12 per cent and Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR) over 1 the project has been identified as an economically viable project.

According to the press release issued by JICA, loan agreement was signed on 11^th March 2019 for Yen 30040 million at annual interest of 0.1 per cent with 40 years repayment period including 12 years grace period.

In September 2020 the Government of Sri Lanka decided not to proceed with JICA funded LRT project citing high project cost and stating it is not the appropriate cost effective transport solution for the urban Colombo transportation infrastructure.

Similarly in October 2020 the government decided to stop the ADB funded Colombo Suburban Railway Project citing high project cost even before finalisation of detail project feasibility. This project completed pre-feasibility in 2017 and concluded Detail Design and Feasibility in December 2020. After finalisation of project detail design, total project cost was reported as US$1.303 billion for the development of 35 KM of double line from Maradana to Padukka. This project cost is comparable with the Total Estimated Cost of Hyderabad Metro Project with $2.66 billion for 71.16 KM.

After financial analysis of the project the Detail Design and Feasibility consultant has reported elevated option is the best with the FIRR of 3.04 per cent and further they reported that Transit Oriented Development (TOD) potential of the project is as high as 50 per cent of the total project income.

As costing of various economic benefits such as losses due to traffic congestion, savings on health expenditure and TOD potential etc. depend on various assumptions, different professional groups may have different views and estimates for valuing these benefits. Therefore, carrying out a project feasibility alone is not sufficient and action should be taken to publish findings and get comments from professional and other interested organisations. Finally the independent appraisal by the National Planning Department is essential before deciding on such mega projects.

In conclusion, I wish to highlight the importance of master planning and continuous follow up on the implementation of the recommendations of a master plan for the betterment of the sector. Further I wish to mention that the National Planning Council (present National Planning Department of the Treasury) was established in 1956 as a recommendation by International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) (present World Bank) for the formulation of national and sectoral policies and matters connected with preparation of Public Investment Programme (PIP) which includes independent appraisal of budget proposals put forward by different sectors before inclusion of such proposals in the national budget.

Unfortunately these good practices introduced in the past were later neglected by the authorities. Also there is lack of coordination due to establishment of Provincial Councils as the subject of transport is in both reserved and concurrent lists of the 13^th Amendment to the Constitution and due to this there is a need to establish high-power coordinating mechanism at the highest level to coordinate planning and implementation of transport sector policies and projects.