BENGALURU: Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has teamed up with Institute of Transport Studies (ITS), University of Leeds and University of Birmingham to independently evaluate Smart City mission in four cities, including Bengaluru, to develop a model approach for make transport system efficient, livable and sustainable.
The two-year Indo-UK research project ‘Understanding Indian urban governance reform: A comparative analysis of the smart city mission reforms and their impact on sustainable urban mobility, launched in July this year, is being funded by UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR).
The project, which also includes New Delhi-based School of Planning and Architecture (SPA) and World Resources Institute (WRI), will focus on ongoing smart city programmes in Bengaluru, Jaipur, Ranchi and Bhubaneswar and study the implications of reforms particularly on urban mobility.
After nearly 10 months of discussions, the study has been categorised into five packages to achieve their objectives. Prof Ashish Verma of the Transportation Engineering Laboratory, IISc, said until now cities were giving priority to transport infrastructure projects like flyovers to address problems in transport systems. But departing from convention, smart city missions emphasised on last mile connectivity, dedicated lanes for cycles, pedestrians to improve urban mobility system. “Thus the smart city mission offers an opportunity to understand impact of reforms and develop a better approach for urban mobility,’’ Prof Verma said.