231 EVALUATIONOFSERVICEQUALITYOFELECTRICRICKSHAWINPATNA
Mr. Anurag
Research Scholar (Transportation Engineering), Department of Civil Engineering Mr. Deepak Kumar
Assistant Professor (HOD), Department of Civil Engineering, School of Engineering and Technology, KK University, Nalanda, Bihar
Abstract- Auto-rickshaws are a mode of intermediate public transport that can be found all over Patna. The percentages of auto-rickshaws are available in 8 to 25% in traffic composition. About 25000 auto-rickshaws are operating on road in Patna. So, Auto- rickshaw in Patna has become lifeline of public transportation in Patna. This study examines the quality of the auto-rickshaw service and its operations in Patna. Structured questionnaires and past literature are used as sources of data from auto users and drivers.
The study of various aspects of characteristics of auto-rickshaw drivers which is the age, educational level, working days, income level, travel distance and related to jam condition and ownership. The study of various aspects of characteristics of auto-rickshaw users which is age, occupation, trip purpose, trip distance, average waiting time on stand, average travel time, possession of private modes of travel, type of auto-rickshaw prefer, reason of auto-rickshaw prefer, fare structure and quality of auto services. These data will be helpful for proper transportation planning and take into account auto-rickshaws sustainable and cheap with respect to private vehicles.as well as the data also covered perceptions of operators to determine the social, economic and transport implications of the services provided.
Keywords: Auto-Rickshaw, Service Quality, IPT Modes, Questionnaire Survey.
1 INTRODUCTION
The city of Patna, formerly known as
“Patliputra” is an ancient city which has a history dating as back as 600 B.C.
Patna is the largest city and the capital of the state Bihar, and stations the south bank of the sacred river Ganges in Eastern India. With a total area of 136 km2 of which the municipal area constitutes 99 km2 while the suburban area constitutes 36 km2. Patna ranks 19th in terms of population among Indian cities with a total population of 16.8 lakhs. Patna has inducted average annual growth of 3.72 % during 2006 – 10 at the same time it also came up with the lowest slum population in India. The city is approximately 35 kilometers long and 16 – 18 kilometers wide. The World Bank, in June 2009 ranked Patna second in India (after Delhi) in ease of starting a business. As of 2021, Patna's per capita gross domestic product is Rupees 1,06,000.
Patna also achieved the title of being the 21st fastest growing city in the world and the 5th fastest growing city of India, according to a study of the City Mayors Foundation.
Figure 1 -Patna Road Map (Source: Patna road map, www.maps of india.com,
retrieved on 01.03.2022)
With recent increase of income opportunities in the city there has been a marked increase of population in the city there has emanated a huge demand of mobility. In the class of total passenger transportation demand approximately 80% of the load is shared is conjoint by transport sector, road share mobility has went up from 35% in 1950 – 1951 to 87% in 2000 - 2001. The road transport sector is a prime consumer of liquid petroleum and petroleum products. At the same time
232 the mobility share of the Privatized and
Para - transit mode of transportation by the commuters has went up from 16.2%
in 1990 – 91 to 21.2% in 2000 – 01.
(Majumdar et. al., 2015), simultaneously the share of both buses and the railways has declined during the same period. The highest increase in per capita mobility requirement in road transportation sector has been observed in the case of Auto - Rickshaws, to a tune of 130% (Majumdar et. al.,2015).
The three wheeler vehicle system of transport in city of Patna can be divided into two major categories:
(a) Motorized transport vehicles which comprise of Auto – Rickshaw (Liquified-petroleum based), Auto – Rickshaw (Diesel Based) and mechanized Van Rickshaws.
(b) Non - motorized vehicles which consist of hand drawn or peddled three wheelers.
(c) Battery operated electric three wheelers or commonly known as E- Rickshaws have emerged as the third type recently in the public
transportation sector in Patna.
E- Rickshaws have gained popularity as public transport system owing to their environment friendly nature and ease of operation. The E-Rickshaws come housed with a brushless D.C motor for the vehicular propulsion and are powered with ordinary lead-acid batteries. Since the E-Rickshaws are environment beneficial hence they have a high capability to cut down the carbon emissions due to passenger transport activities which is a reason of their increasing popularity for commuting short distance within the city and its periphery. E-Rickshaws besides having the basic function to carry people can also be used with modifications for freight services and according to its usage the capacity of motor, battery capacity, charging time, running time may be modified.
Transport Sector -The transportation sector in Patna provides a daily connectivity through the various road and Rail transport networks, which may be described briefly as below:
(i) Bus Transport- Patna City marks the existence of an extensive city bus system for which the demand outmatches the supply, leading to an inhuman condition of trips. The present condition of the city buses is very pauperized. Very old buses operate on roads continually, creating a pollution nuisance hence creating a demand for new and improved C.N.G and low floor buses.
(ii) Auto Rickshaw Transport- Auto rickshaw plays a very crucial role in the transportation sector of Patna.
There has been a tremendous increase in the city’s traffic in the last two decades. Since its debut in India in the late 1950s, auto - rickshaws have become an elemental part of urban mobility of millions of people . Auto - rickshaws are basically three wheelers, with a seating capacity of 3, 5 or 10. These are based on a 2 or 4 stroke engine, having a low horsepower.
(iii) E-Rickshaw Transport- Since, Auto Rickshaw is not available in Patna in sufficient numbers, hence they are not able to meet the inflated requirement of transportation of Patna. Therefore, E-Rickshaw has been introduced recently in Patna. These are Eco - friendly and seating capacity is same as an auto rickshaw. E- Rickshaws have emerged as an option to better last mile connectivity and intra - city transport on one hand as well as a clean technology alternative because of their higher efficiency and lower amount of carbon print on the other hand. Since E-Rickshaws are a recent development in the field of public transportation and since not much of work has been carried out to understand and estimate the vehicular characteristics of E-Rickshaw.
Nowadays, E-Rickshaws are running on various routes of Patna.
233 Figure 2- Electric Rickshaw
LITERATURE REVIEW
The function of the literature review is to recognize and interblend relevant references to exhibit and to depict the presence and absence of knowledge and information regarding the service quality of E-Rickshaws. These references include journal articles, conference papers, published technical reports and other readily available information on internet and other sources.
As discussed in the chapter
“Introduction”, the various mode of public transportation comprise of trains, metros, buses, auto-rickshaw, E-Rickshaw. Studies regarding the qualitative aspects of different means of public transportation have been carried out in different parts of the world in terms of the level of satisfaction. Since, there has been a tremendous increase in the transportation requirements in Patna for the increased population, hence arises a need to look for energy efficient alternatives suiting the urban scenario of the city. E-Rickshaws basically are electricity powered three - Wheeled vehicle that propelled by a brushless Direct current (D.C) motor. Due to its compactness of size, which is befitted best for city traffic, it has the capacity to serve in very compact lanes and streets. A comparison in terms of road space utilization amongst different modes of public transportation modes can be made as:
Table 1 Road Space utilization amongst different modes
Type of
Vehicle Buses Cars Taxis Auto
Rickshaws E-
Rickshaws Area
(metre2) 27.5 12 12 7.5 5.3
(Source: Ministry of Industry, Government of India)
Table 2 E-Rickshaw Specifications Motor Type 48 volts brushless D.C
Motor.
Power(Watts) 850 watts.
Charge Voltage 220volts (50hz).
Charging Time 9-10 hours.
Transmission Mode Non-Gear.
Top Speed 25 kmph.
Continued Trip
Mileage 80-90 km.
Climb Ability ≤20 degrees.
Front wheel size 312 mm.
Rear wheel size 312 mm.
Brake type Double rear drum
brake.
Ground clearance 230 mm.
Dimension 8.6*2.8*5.7 feet.
Net weight 145 kg.
Max. load capacity 400 kg.
Controller Type 48v, 1000 watts.
Controller Power 18 mosphets.
Number of batteries 04.
Wheel Base 1910 mm.
(Source: Mayuri Electric Company) The E-Rickshaws manufactured by various manufacturers come with a variety, in terms of its battery strength, carriage capacity, charging time, motor capacity, running distance etc. as per make and as per requirement , yet a basic E-Rickshaw for carrying people has following specifications:
2 PROBLEM STATEMENT
Patna marks the absence of a developed form of mass transit system. Railway and Bus transport play negligible role in urban transportation system in Patna.
Railway transport mainly resolves the intercity movement of the passengers, it plays a very negligible role in meeting the intra – city travel demand. City bus service under Bihar State Road Transport Corporation also does not work satisfactorily. The lack of reliability of bus service and inefficient operation get clubbed with deteriorating road coverage has resulted in the high usage of Auto - rickshaw and E-Rickshaws, which plays a crucial role by fulfilling more than 90% of public transport
234 demand. This very lack of effective mass
transport system in Patna has given rise to conditions as such, which are fulfilled by E-Rickshaw as a travel mode because of it being faster on narrow spaced streets of Patna due to its lesser area requirement for travel. The average dimension of an Electric Rickshaw is 8.6*2.8*5.7 feet, making it the smallest as compared to auto - rickshaw, vans and buses. The development of infrastructure of the road is not sufficient in Patna for travel mode of buses. Hence, under such a circumstance the Electric Vehicles or E- Rickshaws have emerged as an option to better last mile connectivity and intra - city transport on one hand as well as a clean technology alternative because of their higher efficiency and lower amount of carbon print on the other hand. Since E-Rickshaws are a recent development in the field of public transportation and since not much of work has been carried out to understand and estimate the vehicular characteristics of E- Rickshaw. Hence there is a necessity to carry out analysis and research work on E-Rickshaws to understand the user perception and willing of users to use E-Rickshaws.
3 SCOPE
The present study was carried out to ascertain the service quality of E - Rickshaw users through data collection from the field visits. The survey covered the socio – economic and transport implication of the service provided by Electric - Rickshaws in Patna. The survey focused on a number of details such as vehicle ownership, fare structures, management, Characteristics of users that can be accessed in terms of trip purposes served by E-Rickshaw for example work, education, shopping , health care and recreation. The work carried out also focused on estimating the level of satisfaction derived from the E-Rickshaw to the users and also aimed at finding the areas of high importance but low satisfaction levels, in order to make recommendations for improvement of the present existing facility of E-Rickshaws.
Data regarding the importance of attributes was also collected in order to carry out a comparison between the
importance and satisfaction of the same attribute as stated by the users and to find out a correlation between the attributes.
4 METHODOLOGY
(i) Study Area-Patna is largest city and the capital of the state of Bihar. Patna stands as the second largest city in the eastern part of India after Kolkata of West Bengal. With an approximated population of 16.8 lakhs in the year 2011, this city made itself the 19th largest city in India.
Besides more than 2 million people Patna has its urban clustering as the 18th largest in India. The vehicular growth of the city has been registered to mark a 67 times hike in the number of vehicles in the previous two decades and the same situation follows until now. About 60% of the stretch of Patna has a residential land use and almost 7.61 % of its stretch is available near transport infrastructure.
Figure 3- Patna Road Map
(Source: Patna road map, www.maps of india.com, retrieved on 15.11.2021) The city has followed primitive shape of development and has its maximal population compactness along the banks of the sacred river Ganges. The city has an approximate length of 35 kilometres and a width of 16 to 18 kilometres. In June 2009, The World Bank positioned Patna 2nd in India after the nation capital Delhi for ease of doing business. The present prevailing circulation design of Patna is straight due to the topographical position of Patna having the Ganges in the North and the river Punpun in the South which has resulted to a linear i.e. East - West alignment of the road networks.
235 The right of way of majority of the
roads show that more than 70% of roads in Patna are less than 7.5 m wide. Bailey Road, Ashok Rajpath, Boring road, New Bypass Road, Old Bypass and road joining Patna Junction to Gandhi Maidan (Sinha et al.2012) are the major roads of Patna.
(ii) The Study-The purpose of the study is to understand the Service Quality of E-Rickshaws as a preferred mode of travel in the form of questionnaire through on site interview with users.
(iii) Questionnaire Development-In order to assess the service quality of the Electric - Rickshaw, the analysis needed a development of a variable questionnaire item for measuring the service quality of the vehicle. At first, a pilot questionnaire survey was carried out. The items included in the page 1 of 3 related to the various socio - economic condition and travelling features of the trip makers.
The Socio - Economic characteristics of the E - Rickshaw users was determined by taking into consideration factors such as their gender, age, educational qualification, occupation, monthly family income (in INR), vehicle ownership of private vehicles (if any). Travel characteristics included trip purpose, trip destination, transfer place, fare incurred for the travel and other types of modes used to travel between the same set of origin and destination.
(iv) Respondents -The participants of the survey work included males and females users of different age groups with varying levels of income and occupation. The commuters who were a part of the survey were people who were using E - Rickshaw for travelling purposes in the predefined routes. The routes for plying of the E - Rickshaws has already been defined by the regional transport office, Patna, which includes:-
Gola Road to Danapur Circle.
IGIMS More to IGIMS Locality.
Gandhi Maidan to Patna City East and West Corridor.
Aashiana More to Kurji.
Digha More to Magistrate Colony and Beyond.
Digha More to Aashiana Colony Phase-1.
Jagdev Path to Tamtam Padav.
Ashok Rajpath to City Chowk.
Patna Junction to Old Bypass.
Station to Nala Road.
Gandhi Maidan to Dak - Bunglaw.
Gulzarbagh to Pahaadi.
Patna Sahib Station to Pahaadi.
Kargil Chowk to West Digha.
Rajendra Nagar flyover to Malahi Pahadi.
Bhootnath More to Bypass.
5 DATA ANALYSIS AND
INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS 5.1 Users Characteristics
(i) Age -As per the population census of 2011 the sex ratio of Patna was 897 females per 1000 males. The number of males and females hence are roughly the same, the survey shows that in terms of the usage of the E - Rickshaw male users exceed female users. 61.5 % and 38.5%
respectively are the gender wise E - Rickshaw usage. In order to expand the female user volume of E-rickshaw, woman E-rickshaw driving culture is being introduced gradually in Patna. Female users feel comfortable to accommodate the rickshaws seeing woman drivers, boosting a sense of security and confidence.
Figure 4- Gender – wise distribution of E - Rickshaw users
(ii) Age Group -Out of the surveyed population and per the analysis, a total of 2.25% of the user population falls below 10 years, a 53.25% of the users lied in the age group of 10 to 25 years, 34.25%
of users fell between the age group of 25 to 40 years and 1.5% were aged more than 60 years.
Figure 5- Age distribution of E-Rickshaw users
236 (iii) Educational Qualification. -The
analysis from the data infers that a total of 18.25% of interviewed users were matriculate, 29.50% of the users were intermediate, 38.25% of the users were graduate (which was the highest amongst all educational categories) and 11% of the users were post graduate and 3% users did not complete matriculation ( inclusive of illiterate and school going users).
Figure 6 Educational Qualification of E - Rickshaw Users
(iv) Occupation-The data from the analysis of the data shows that a total of 218 users out of 400 (54.5% of the users who were interviewed were students ), 82 users out of 400 (20.5%) were involved in job with either the government or private institutions, 65 users were doing business (16.25%), 25 were in search of jobs ( unemployed, 6.25% ) &
10 out of the total users interviewed were involved in other means of employment which includes self employment, daily wage working, small scale production of goods and services.
Figure 7 Occupation of E-Rickshaw users
6 CONCLUSION
The operation of auto-rickshaw in Patna is one of the major means of transportation of people various parts of the city. Auto- rickshaws are becoming a popular mode of public transport due to their ready availability, provision of door to door service, ease in contacting and a perception
that they are affordable. The results of the surveys indicted the male person is used to auto-rickshaw in a mass level because maximum working people are male. The age group 21-40 years which do mostly used to travel in auto-rickshaw. Maximum users are belonging to students and new age employee group. These are preferred to auto due to comfort and convenient mode of public transportation. Generally, the users of auto travel for long distance
more than 5kms. They prefer walking and cycle mode for short distance does not require transportation cost. The main reason of selecting auto-rickshaw is less waiting time. auto-rickshaw stand and parking spaces at convenient places near offices, places of business, bus stands, schools, residential areas, hospitals, markets, airport, railway station etc. so that, the waiting time on auto stand is less.
the variation of fares in different route are not regulated way. because, government authority are not controlling of unregulated fare structures due to this fares increment controlled by Auto-rickshaw Men’s Unions.
Here fare structure is not based on the travel distance. It is only depend on nature of travel routes which does not understand fare circular. The present socio-economic characteristics of the auto-rickshaw drivers are studied. From analysis, Maximum Drivers of Patna are lying between age group 26 to 35 years .this show that these auto-rickshaw drivers are young and middle-aged men. Auto drivers are educated as secondary level which shows the educational backgrounds of drivers are weak. In working days per week, maximum drivers are working a 5 to 6 days per week.
Maximum drivers are face to relate poor jam condition in all routes in Patna due to lack of road infrastructure and overtaking of vehicles. The normal income varies day to day availability of passengers. Maximum drivers are earned an average income between Rs. 251 to 350 per day. Auto drivers needs to their have own auto- rickshaw due to increase average income.
In working hours per day, generally auto drivers start of auto from 5 AM. Maximum drivers give a fined due to violation of traffic rules which is no parking, no entry, overloading etc. So, the improvement of traffic condition needs for efficient operation of auto-rickshaw.
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