[sustran] Re: National Urban Transport Policy (Final)

[Sunny]

Thank you Sujit for the document. I have read it and most of the 
document is impressive if implemented. Still I wonder on some points 
stated in the document.

Firstly, I did not find any mention of reducing speeds of the private 
motor vehicles as speed is an important factor for causing accidents.

Secondly, from an environmental context Electricity is surely the 
cleanest and sometimes affordable source of energy provided that the 
source is also the same. Especially in India where most of the 
electricity is produced from burning fossil fuels or through hydro wont 
you think that increasing the electric fleet will pose a pressure on 
production? From my knowledge several states in India are still power 
thirsty and buy power from their neighbours. In my opinion it would be 
nice if there is sufficient research on other alternative fuels or 
biofuels which can at least meet the needs and also create a livelihood 
for some.

Finally, the mention of NMT and vulnerable groups in the document is 
impressive, but I am worried that engineering solutions will be embraced 
for providing safety to pedestrians on the arterial roads. Like here in 
Bangkok, several pedestrian bridges are constructed, these are supposed 
to make the pedestrians safer while crossing the road; but in my view I 
feel that these bridges are to totally segregate the pedestrians off the 
main road so that they do not cause any hindrance for the car drivers 
and the cars need not stop or wait till the pedestrians cross the road. 
These bridges are not very pedestrian friendly as they don't consider 
the old or disabled people who are forced to cross the road directly 
some times ending up in the hospital.

So, these are my opinions on the document and I agree that my idea can 
be wrong in some places. I would like to know the comments of the fellow 
members too.

Thanks once again Sujit,

Sunny


Santhosh Kumar K
Faculty of Environment and Resource Studies,
MAHIDOL UNIVERSITY
999, Phuttamonthon Road 4,
Salaya, Nakhorn Pathom.
Thailand
Ph: +66 4 113 0181
Email: sksunny at gmail.com; sunnysanthosh at gmail.com
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* Sujit Patwardhan [mailto:sujitjp at gmail.com]
> *Sent:* Thu 13/04/2006 21:49
> *To:* pttf at googlegroups.com
> *Subject:* National Urban Transport Policy (Final)
>
> 13 April 2006
>
>
> Dear All,
> The "National Urban Transport Policy", draft of which was on the Urban 
> Development Department, Govt of India, is now posted on their site and 
> can be downloaded as a PDF file. The location (URL) is given below.
>
> http://www.urbanindia.nic.in/moud/programme/ut/nutp.pdf
> --
> Sujit
> -- 
> ------------------------------------------------------
> Sujit Patwardhan
> sujit at vsnl.com <mailto:sujit at vsnl.com>
> sujitjp at gmail.com <mailto:sujitjp at gmail.com>