The Raipur Municipal Corporation will be
developing a non-motorised track (NMT) corridor at Gaurav path in the city.
The corridor would be developed under ‘Smart City Mission-Smart Roads project, officials informed here on Monday.
Raipur City is to promote Non-Motorised Transport with dedicated pedestrianised corridors and enhanced ‘walk ability’ options.
This was stated in the ‘Smart City Proposal’ for Raipur submitted during Stage II of the ‘Smart City
Challenge’ of India Smart City Mission of the Union Ministry of Urban Development.
The NMT mode had been focussed to bring
pollution levels further down in the city, officials informed.
The citizens of Raipur foresee themselves living in environmentally clean,
socially cohesive, sustainable, using renewable energy sources, utilizing scientific water and waste management, employing smart transportationand a safe city with a responsive ‘Smart Governance Framework’, the document mentioned
The Union Ministry of Urban Development has taken up ‘Transit Oriented Development’ (TOD) in Naya Raipur besides Ahmedabad, Delhi (Kakardooma), Nagpur and Navi Mumbai, the Central Government has informed.
The Ministry would like this to be expanded to other cities as well, it informed.
To effectively address the emerging urbanization
challenges, the Union Ministry of Urban Development has come out with a multi-pronged policy framework to promote living close to mass urban transit corridors, the Ministry informed.
This new initiative seeks to promote TOD which enables people to live within walking or cycling distance from transit corridors like the Metros, Monorail and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridors,
currently being taken up on a large scale.
The Ministry has formulated a ‘National Transit Oriented Development Policy’ which will be discussed with the States and Union Territories at a National Workshop on Urban Development to be held on Tuesday next week.
This policy seeks to enhance the depth of understanding of States and UTs on TOD as a viable solution to many of the challenges like haphazard urban growth and sprawl, mobility, rapidly rising private vehicles on roads, pollution, housing choices etc.
This new urban design and planning in the form of TOD, is being incentivized by the Union Ministry under two more initiatives viz., Metro Policy and Green Urban Mobility Scheme which also will be discussed with States and UTS for taking them on board.
Under TOD, city
densification will be promoted along mass transit corridors through vertical construction by substantially enhancing FARs (Floor Area Ratio) backed by promotion of
Non-motorised Transport Infrastructure for walking and cycling to transport stations, development of street networks in the influence zone of
transit corridors, multi-modal integration, effective first and last mile connectivity through feeder services to enable
people access public transit in 5 to 10 minutes from home and work places.
Dense living along transit corridors besides resulting in enhanced living and travel experience, will also improve ridership of mass transit
systems. If properly executed, TOD could emerge as a means of financing mass transit project, for which the demand is growing.
TOD promotes integration of land use planning with transportation and infrastructure development to avoid long distance travel in cities through compact development as against the present pattern of unplanned and haphazard urban growth.
Under the new Metro Policy, TOD has been
mandatory while under Green Urban Mobility Scheme, TOD has been made an essential reform and is given priority for receiving central assistance.
The Ministry’s initiative comes in the context of over 300 km of Metro lines being operational in seven cities, another 600 kms of metro line projects under construction in 12 cities and over 500 km
projects under consideration.
The Ministry has supported BRTS projects in 12 cities which are under different stages of progress and eight more cities are set to take up BRT projects. Mass Rail Transit System of 380 km length is being taken up in Delhi.
Transit Oriented Development will be financed by channelizing a part of increases in property values resulting from investments in transit corridors through Betterment levies and Value Capture Financing tools. Increased private sector participation will result in economic development and employment generation.
TOD Policy also aims at inclusive development by ensuring mixed neighbourhood development in the form of a range of housing choices including affordable housing and ensuring spaces for street vendors. The Chhattisgarh Government will encourage use of public transport by way of allowing more density along the public transport corridors which makes public transport financially sustainable and on the other hand, reduces the usage of personal vehicles in its new capital city, officials here informed.
The concept of Transit Oriented Development (TOD) is being adopted to make Naya Raipur a sustainable city.
To construct bus shelters within walkable range from the sectors, to connect the sectors and BRT shelters with cycle tracks and walkways, to design the shelters with facilities of bicycle parking thereby reducing the emission of green house gases, congestion on roads and reducing accidents.
Notably, the Naya Raipur Development Authority (NRDA) has plans of developing a ‘Transport Hub’ spread over an area of 161.9 hectares in the new capital city.