[sustran] Re: To decongest 30 cities, Urban Development Ministry asks American firm for roadmap

[Alan Howes]

Eric says Erp, I say Aaagh! Shivery indeed.
 
I was just thinking on the plane back from Mumbai, the basic trouble
with India wrt transport planning (and plenty other developing
countries) is that it's done by engineers (and I speak as one of those)
whose first reaction to a problem is "what can we build?" (which is
where I part company!).
 
And this "infrastructure modelling" project seems to be exactly that.
Instead of "how do we manage our way out of this problem?".  Which might
include building something - but not necessarily.
 
And what is "traffic dispersal"?  Equals Urban Sprawl?  Does not sound
like a TDM strategy.
 
Though I can't see 1.32 crore getting them far spread over 30 cities.
 
I hope WB is not paying for this.  Though of course, it could be an
excellent study, badly reported ...
 
Alan
 
--
Alan Howes
Associate Transport Planner
Colin Buchanan 
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________________________________

From:
sustran-discuss-bounces+alan.howes=cbuchanan.co.uk at list.jca.apc.org
[mailto:sustran-discuss-bounces+alan.howes=cbuchanan.co.uk at list.jca.apc.
org] On Behalf Of Eric Britton
Sent: 12 September 2006 10:53
To: Sustran-discuss at jca.apc.org
Subject: [sustran] To decongest 30 cities,Urban Development Ministry
asks American firm for roadmap



Erp! I would be most eager to have comments on this article from last
week's Indian Express. It sends shivers down by back (Wilbur Smith??),
but what do I know, eh?

 

Eric Britton

 

PS. When Sigmund Freud was trying to exit Vienna for England in the late
thirties, the German officials insisted that he write a letter
exonerating the SS from any bad behaviour in his case. His reply was
very short, reading more or less: "Letter to anyone who might happen to
require the good services of the SS. They are indeed very good at what
they do."  (End rough quote)

 

To decongest 30 cities, Centre asks American firm for roadmap


Maitreyee Handique - http://www.indianexpress.com/story/11223.html


 

NEW DELHI, August 22:

To decongest the traffic chaos and improve mobility in India's city
roads, the Urban Development Ministry is initiating a study to develop
an infrastructure model to ease traffic congestion. 

Wilbur Smith Associates Private Ltd (WSAPL), a subsidiary of the
US-based traffic and transportation planning company, Wilbur Smith
Associates, has been selected to conduct sample surveys in 30 cities,
including metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and
Kolkata. 

The other cities, which were finalised yesterday, include Jaipur,
Gangtok, Shimla, Ahmedabad and Surat. 

The report, which will be ready within a year, will cost Rs 1.32 crore.
The company presented its inception report to the ministry this week. 

WSPL was selected among at least six bidders through a tender process
four months ago, sources said. The study called Traffic Engineering &
Transportation Planning will focus on creating an infrastructure model
based on its research of different cities and suggest methods of traffic
dispersal and creation of new corridors. The survey will become a base
model for replicating in other cities in the future, sources said. 

The methodology will be based on traffic surveys, household interviews,
as well as secondary data and sample interviews of more than 4,000
people in big cities. 

It will consider several parameters such as the shape of the city,
population, the available public transport and per capita income. The
study will also offer suggestions relating to public transportation
requirement of cities. 

At present, dependence on public transport system in cities like Mumbai
is over 70 per cent while in Delhi it's about 30-35 per cent. In
Chennai, it's about 40 per cent whereas in towns like Kanpur it's as low
as 5 per cent. The ministry had last conducted a study of India's
traffic situation in 1998. This is the first time that the focus is
being laid on infrastructure modelling to address the issue of traffic
snarl-ups.

 


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