[sustran] As cities grow, transportation plans must head for the future

Vinay Baindur yanivbin at gmail.com
Sat Sep 4 16:24:21 JST 2010


As cities grow, transportation plans must head for the futureRadheshyam
Jadhav, Sep 3, 2010, 04.07am IST
PUNE: One of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal
Mission's<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/search?q=Jawaharlal%20Nehru%20National%20Urban%20Renewal%20Mission's>
(JNNURM)
visions is to have cities where the public mass transport system rules.
Which is why projects like the Bus Rapid Transit
System<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/search?q=Bus%20Rapid%20Transit%20System>
 ( BRTS <http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/search?q=BRTS>) have
become so important in
Pune<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/search?q=Pune> and
Ahemdabad .

But experts say that in states like Maharashtra where urban corridors in the
vicinity of the cities are emerging as a result of intensified urbanisation,
the city-centric focus of urban transportation must change to include a
larger area that will cater to an urban conglomeration.

As far back as 1988, the national commission on urbanisation had identified
329 urban centres as generators of economic momentum (GEMs) where
development activities should converge.

The government of India's National
Atlas<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/search?q=National%20Atlas>
and
Thematic Mapping Organisation's (NATMO) study had identified 25 urban
corridors. The Centre for Policy
Research<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/search?q=Centre%20for%20Policy%20Research>
(CPR)
study specifically looked at Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and
Andhra Pradesh. The findings of the study confirmed the emergence of the
earlier corridors with a few new corridors.

The CPR <http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/search?q=CPR> study
identified four corridors in Maharashtra-- Mumbai-Thane (to Ahmedabad),
Mumbai-Pune, Mumbai-Nashik-Dhule-Amravati-Nagpur, and
Pune-Ahmednagar-Aurangabad-Jalgaon. It also indicated the likely percentage
of population that would settle along these corridors. The picture that
emerges is clearly one of strong and spectacular growth along the
corridors.

"The implications of the corridor development are many. They will be
multi-nodal, but not well-connected functionally. Such connectivity will
require careful planning and policy choices on whether the corridors need to
be continuous or not. The location of future economic activities,
residential development, infrastructure together with integration of
multi-nodal centres both spatially and functionally, would have to be
planned and visualised," K C Sivaramakrishnan and B N Singh said in their
study on urbanisation.

Another study by the ministry of urban development, the total requirement of
funds for urban transport in 87 identified cities by 2030 is estimated at Rs
4,35,380 crore.

The gap between the investment demand and likely availability of funds from
budgetary sources of central, state and urban local bodies is wide. While it
is difficult to ascertain the actual amount due to uncertainty of proposals
from these government bodies, they have been advised to set up a dedicated
urban transport fund at the state and city levels to mitigate the gap.

Former assistant director of the state town planning department Ramchandra
Gohad <http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/search?q=Ramchandra%20Gohad>
who
is now with the Pune Metropolitan Planning Committee's (PMPC) land-use
committee said that the immediate need was to establish the Pune
Metropolitan Development
Authority<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/search?q=Pune%20Metropolitan%20Development%20Authority>
 (PMRDA).

"Once the PMRDA <http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/search?q=PMRDA> is
a physical entity,
JNNURM<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/search?q=JNNURM> funds
could be claimed for a wider network of the Pune metropolitan region area
spread over 3,000 sq km. As per the 74th constitutional amendment, PMPC will
prepare and implement an integrated development plan for a region. Areas
falling under the metropolitan region includes municipal councils, panchayat
samitis and gram panchayats, should get benefit of JNNURM funds," said
Gohad.

On its part, the government has launched the Sustainable Urban Transport
Project<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/search?q=Transport%20Project>
at
an estimated cost of Rs.1439.01 crore. The proposal involves seeking grants
from the global environment facility through the World
Bank<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/World-Bank>
 and United Nations Development
Programme<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/search?q=United%20Nations%20Development%20Programme>
and
loans from the World Bank to the cities through the state governments and
central assistance under the JNNURM, urban transport planning and capacity
building schemes, contribution from the states and the implementing
agencies.

"Road conditions in cities like Nanded are poor and managed inadequately.
The bus transport system run by the Maharashtra Road State Transport
Corporation<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/search?q=Maharashtra%20Road%20State%20Transport%20Corporation>
has
become defunct," states the City Development
Plan<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/search?q=City%20Development%20Plan>
(CDP)
submitted to the central government by the Nanded Municipal
Corporation<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/search?q=Nanded%20Municipal%20Corporation>.
The CDP has insisted on better connectivity with urban conglomerations.

The urban corridors surrounding the areas of cities like
Mumbai<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/search?q=Mumbai>,
Pune and Nagpur <http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/search?q=Nagpur> are
growing fast as people from other parts of the state and other states settle
outside the main city because of housing affordability.

According to the Economic
Survey<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/search?q=Economic%20Survey>
of
Maharashtra released in April 2010, there has been a rapid growth in the
density of population. The 2001 census puts the density (number of people
per sq km) of the population was 315 and this number may increase to 366 in
2011. This indicates a rise of 51 people per sq km putting an additional
burden on the existing infrastructure. The survey also indicates a 5.4 per
cent rise in the population of potential work force (15-59 age group) in
2011.

Emerging corridors in Maharashtra

The percentages of the urban population likely to be located in these
corridors by 2021 is indicated

Mumbai-Thane (to Ahmedabad): 42%

Mumbai-Pune: 11% (excluding Mumbai)

Mumbai-Nashik-Dhule-Amravati-Nagpur: 21% (excluding Mumbai),

Pune-Ahmednagar-Aurangabad-Jalgaon: 6%

( Source - The Centre for Policy Research)

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/As-cities-grow-transportation-plans-must-head-for-the-future/articleshow/6482202.cms


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