Delhi misses the list of cities taking unique initiatives to promote public transport
Delhi could not find a place in the list of eight cities identified by the ministry of urban development for ‘best and commendable initiatives’ toward promotion of public transport, non-motorised transport and road safety. Incidentally, six out of the eight selected cities are from BJP ruled states.
The cities identified by the union urban development ministry include Surat, Gandhinagar and Rajkot in Gujarat, Indore and Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh, Dharwar in Karnataka, Karnal in Haryana and the Sikkim’s capital Gangtok.
Officials said that in the ‘Best Mass Urban Transport’ category, Surat’s integrated mass transit system with focus on bus transport has been adjudged the best while the short term mass transit solution for simhastha, 2016 in Indore has been identified as a commendable initiative.
Similarly, Gandhinagar’s ‘G-Bike’, a cycle sharing initiative and ‘Sanjhi Cycle’ of Karnal have been adjudged as a ‘commendable’ initiatives towards promotion of non-motorised Transport. In the ‘City Bus Service’ category, Dharwad-Hubli service in Karnataka came out the ‘Best’ while Rajkot in Gujarat as ‘Commendable Initiative’.
Gangtok’s Integrated Depot Management System (IDMS) and Jabalpur’s ‘J-Card’ have been adjudged as Commendable Initiatives under Intelligent Transport System (ITS) category. Surat’s initiative to ensure long term availability of rapid mobility and high accessibility through Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) as a part of Integrated Multi-modal System with phased introduction of 875 buses has come out the Best for Excellence Award under Best Urban Mass Transit category.
Atal Indore City Transport Services Limited’s successful handling of public transit works in Ujjain during Simhastha Mela-2016, attended by about 75 million devotees has been acknowledged as a Commendable Initiative under Mass Transit category.
‘Sanjhi Cycle’ initiative of Karnal, launched as a pilot NMT initiative in June this year as a PPP project for cycle sharing, is a joint initiative of Karnal Municipal Corporation and Karnal Police. Private partner is alloweAAd advertisement revenues.
The North West Karnataka Road Transport Corporation’s introduction of city bus service connecting Dharwar and Hubli besides connecting economic nodes has been adjudged the Best initiative in city bus service category.
Chandigarh’s ‘4 E’ initiative of Education, Enforcement, Engineering Changes and Emergency care training initiative of Chandigarh to prevent road traffic crashes and minimize injuries besides setting up a Road Safety Fund for awareness generation has been identified as a ‘Commendable Initiative’ towards improving Road Safety.
A senior official said that the selection has been made after compehensive exercise and will be awarded for best and commendable Initiatives for urban transport projects by the minister of state for urban development Rao Inderjit Singh on the last day of the ongoing Urban Mobility Conference in Gandhinagar on Friday.