CHENNAI: If E Sreedharan was the evangelist for Metro Rail in India, it is Enrique Penalosa who’s playing that role for what he believes is an alternative that’s cleaner, cheaper but equally effective. Penalosa , the 59-year-old politician from Colombia, is criss-crossing the globe these days to pitch for what’s called the Bus Rapid Transit System, or BRTS . After taking over as mayor of Colombia’s capital Bogota in the late ’90s, Penalosa is famous for cancelling a network of costly elevated highways to regulate the messy traffic there and, in its place , having dedicated bus lanes. The TransMilenio project, as it was called, was a huge success, coming relatively cheap and cutting down travel time considerably. Penalosa has since helped Ahmedabad take up this system with some success.Penalosa got a bachelor’s degree in economics and history from Duke University , and did his masters and doctorate in management and public administration in France. The transportation improvements in Bogota were the highlight of his threeyear mayorship. In Chennai recently to spread the word about BRTS, Penalosa has his sights set on major Indian cities. He’s already closely working with projects in Pune, Pimpri-Chichwad , Rajkot and Ranchi. And that’s why he says he will be visiting India all too frequently. “Transport is one thing that tends to get worse when the society gets richer, instead of getting better,” says he.“I think there is enormous potential in India to do better cities and to avoid mistakes done by Latin American cities in their urbanisation process.” With rapid urbanisation, India’s creaky transportation system is set to get a huge revamp. But there have already been heated arguments about which is the best way to go. Many cities , including Chennai, have already given the nod to Metro as well as the mono rail systems. The BRTS experience has been low-key and chequered, with it proving a dud in Delhi. Penalosa , however, says he played no part in advising Delhi. “The most valuable resource that Chennai has is road space. Chennai could have diamonds on the ground and even oil but nothing is as valuable as road space,” Penalosa says. “Indian cities built after the British left are unfortunately not of high quality.” But he knows it isn’t easy getting things running on the ground. “If all citizens are equal, then a bus with a hundred passengers has a right to hundred times more road space than a car with one.“Penalosa, who now runs the New York-based NGO Institute for Transportation and Development Policy , believes it is just a matter of time before BRTS is adopted. As an example, he points out how the bus rapid system in Bogota or Guangzhou moves much more passengers per hour than Delhi’s Metro lines, that too “at a fraction of the cost.” “After spending many, many billions on metros and monorails, and never moving even 10% of the population, and after spending billions on double-decker flyovers, which will destroy Indian cities’ quality of life, India will have to come back to the obvious .” His NGO, dealing with issues such as climate, cycling , transport and traffic reduction, works in seven regions of the world, including the US, China and India. It might be, as he says, difficult to convince politicians but his marketing of the BRTS idea has earned him admirers amongst administrators and NGOs. Chennai Corporation Commissioner Vikram Kapur says, “Penalosa is quite an icon. His vision is quite impressive, especially the way he is trying to promote public transport.”The Chennai Corporation, Kapur says, is working on encouraging public transport , as also to provide bus shelters, wider footpaths, and cycle tracks. Raj Cherubal, co-ordinator for Chennai City Connect, which is collaborating with Penalosa’s NGO, says, “It is painful to get good things done; people will question your sanity. When he started out at Bogota, his popularity rating was low with many opposing him but he has managed to get good popularity rating at the end.” But Cherubal does reckon that BRTS alone can’t solve traffic issues. “We need multiple systems .” Rajaram Bojji, the former managing director of Konkan Railway , has a different take on the issue. He says BRTS is “certainly better than existing chaotic road mixed transport.” But he says, BRTS “cannot expand to improve once saturation is reached and, unlike rail-based system, its speeds will be lower.” Other challenges will be fuel consumption and a broken-down bus clogging the entire route. However, Bojji says, “In the short term, BRTS is much better solution than Monorail or even metro rail.” The question remains, though: can Penalosa convince the policymakers?