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Ahmedabad is located in the west of India.
It's the seventh largest city in India.
It was founded in 1411.
Congestion is becoming a problem.
Travel times are getting to increase.
We also have problems of air quality.
That’s the major issue, which the city has faced.
Sharing of the road between buses, rickshaws, cars, motorbikes was creating traffic congestion.
A study was commissioned, and in which a metro was recommended in the first stage.
However, the cost of implementing the metro was going to be too high.
Twenty years ago when you had high volumes in any road, you were thinking rail.
But with the experiences in South America, and with all the elements of BRT ...
It has been proven that you can handle really, really high capacity also with buses.
And that's why we brought this new system of BRT.
What makes Janmarg special is that it is a full BRT: busway, the stations, prepayment at the stations, the control center ...
And last but not least, a distinctive image: a name, a brand, a corridor, a quality of the station ...
That shows that it is a different system than a normal bus.
Today the biggest success is this BRT belongs to the Ahmedabad people.
Janmarg means people's way.
It is for the common people and we wanted to give that message that it's not just for one section.
About 70 or 80 percent of the network passes through the poor peoples' area.
I think the Ahmedabad system has broken this class barrier. People from all across the society come on board.
And how we carry this forward in the next 15 to 20 years is going to be very, very important.
As of today, the BRT moves about 90,000 people per day on a network of about 38 kilometers.
The number of accidents and fatalities in Ahmedabad is comparable to some of the best cities in the world.
There are about 200 to 220 fatalities per year in Ahmedabad, which is comparable to cities like Singapore.
Air quality seems to be improving significantly along the corridor ...
And the recognition from the world over is also important.
Car traffic has eased a lot.
Before the BRTs the trip would take two hours and now it takes only 35 minutes, so I get to work quickly.
I see BRT as the lifeline of Ahmedabad.
I also look at the BRT as the catalyst for a lot of urban redevelopment happening in the city.
I think it's one system and one society is what we would like to put it, irrespective of the modes.
I think if we achieve that then we've done our job right.