Aiming to develop a holistic approach to resolve urban transport woes of City Beautiful, UT Administration has joined hands with New Delhi based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).
The experts from the CSE would assist UT Administration in chalking out future policies to deal with the critical issues of air quality management, public health protection and the challenges of public transport and traffic congestion in the Union Territory of Chandigarh.
At present, the transport system in Chandigarh faces a major challenge due to continuous growth of urban population, private vehicle ownership, congestion and also due to the fragility of public transport here. After one year of its establishment, Chandigarh had around 940 vehicles and the number of vehicles has escalated to over 9.5 lakh in 2013.
Given the escalating urban transport problems, the UT Administration has sought assistance of CSE to explore initiatives that has been adopted by the National Capital and other cities in the country and across the globe to deal with these critical issues.
To alleviate the traffic woes here, the UT is already working on introducing Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridors, the model that was adopted in New Delhi. Also, the UT Administration bought low-floor buses with same designs that are plying in New Delhi and Bangalore.
Besides, the UT Administration has hit the ground running in the projects like metro, improvement and development of pedestrian path and other non-motorized transport, new links and bypasses, traffic signage, lane marking among others on the critical traffic intersections here.
KK Sharma, Adviser to UT Administrator while talking to The Pioneer said, “The CSE would assist the UT in evolving strategies to deal with the traffic woes. A seminar titled “Air Quality and Transportation Challenge: An Agenda for Action” would also be organised by UT Administration in collaboration with CSE on May 24 here.”
The experts from CSE and other stakeholders would deliberate critical issues of air quality management, traffic congestion among others at the Seminar.
He said: “The forum would discuss various initiatives adopted by other cities to deal with traffic problems and will analyze if the same can be adopted in Chandigarh.”
Sharma added, “Besides improving the transport, the UT is also focusing on containing air pollution. The UT Administration is already working on the finalising action plan on climate change which would assist us in many ways in maintaining the original character of the green city-Chandigarh.”
Notably, the policy recommendations including congestion charge model, scrutiny of parking areas before vehicle registration, mandatory use of renewable energy and recycled water for large buildings has been recommended in the plan.
In the past, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) had suggested the Delhi Government to levy hefty road tax, introduction of congestion charge and putting a high premium on parking to check the growth of private vehicles and overcome the traffic congestion.