Govt of India approves Urban Mobility Plan for 13 cities of Uttar Pradesh

New Delhi, India (Urban Transport News): Integrated Transportation System will become a reality in Uttar Pradesh very soon. And for this, the Central government has approved a proposal of a comprehensive urban mobility plan in Lucknow and other 12 cities of the state. For this project, 80 % of the fund will come directly from the center and rest 20% by the state.

Deepak Kumar, principal secretary, urban development said:

Central government has approved the project and now we will make a comprehensive plan for urban mobility in the state capital and other 12 cities of the state.

Speculations of providing public bike-sharing system, pathways for walkers, maximum utilization of roads with hybrid and electric buses are also going on.

The Urban Mobility Plan of these 13 cities will bring a change in the way transportation was interpreted till now.

In addition to this Principal Secretary said that “By making policies and strategies we direct the urban planning in the city and transport planning is a regular exercise.”

Uttar Pradesh will soon experience a major development in the transportation system and that day is not far when the state will have bus rapid transport corridor on city roads, flyovers, underpasses, cycle pathways, walking pathways, and intelligent transport system etc.

In contrary to this urban development department’s official said that to implement projects like BRTS, firstly the state needs to upgrade its existing infrastructure. Because the existing infrastructure will not be compatible with the transportation systems the government is planning to establish.

He supported his point with an example of the width of roads. And said that how can we think of planning a BRTS in areas like Aminabad, Alambagh, Chowk, and Thakurganj where even pedestrians struggle to walk.

Pointing towards the other aspects that have to be taken care of while planning a transportation system like this. Municipal commissioner Indramani Tripathi said, “we will have to think about clean air, safe and open urban spaces to walk at the same time commute with safety.”

Insufficiency of proper infrastructure like bus network or width of roads enough to accommodate buses under BRTS is major trouble for the policymakers.