Chhattisgarh’s Urban Administration and Development Minister Amar Agrawal who is currently visiting United States has asked his Department’s officials to prepare ‘Smart City’ plans based on San Francisco’s Metropolitan Model.
The Minister on his last day of the tour of the United States in San Francisco met the senior officers of San Francisco’s Metropolitan Transport Commission, officials stated.
He said that for building the Traffic related infrastructure in Chhattisgarh’s cities, it should be kept in mind to develop better facilities using less number of resources.
Agrawal expressed his desire to transform the Urban Traffic Committees formed by Chhattisgarh Urban Administration and Development Department into independent and self governing institutions on the lines of San Francisco Bay Area Metrolopolitan Transport Authority .
He said that Chhattisgarh would develop similar traffic management systems as existing in San Francisco.
While in New York city, the Minister had stated that Chhattisgarh is to adopt the US model of developing dedicated Public Transport corridors in its cities.
The development of a highly evolved Public Transport System with dedicated corridors will begin from the road connecting Swami Vivekananda Airport to Raipur city, he had stated. Agarwal had also met officials of Southern California Association of Governments in los Angeles in a meeting that the project would have dedicated corridors for pedestrians, cyclists, two-wheeler users, cars and buses.
During the meeting, the Minister asked Principal Secretary, Urban Administration and Development Department RP Mandal accompanying him to prepare a work plan on implementing the proposed Public Transport System on the lines of developed nations in Raipur. The Southern California Association of Governments is known for framing developmental plans of metropolitan cities. Present in the meeting were Secretary to Senior Advisor of US Department of Public Transportation Caroline Flowers , Senior Manager of the US Transport Department Steven Fox and Manager of Transit and Rail Department Phillip law.
New York city officials in the United States involved in urban infrastructure management tasks have evinced keen interest in taking up a series of training programmes on road safety measures and street design initiatives in Chhattisgarh’s cities.