The Indian Express 24.09.2013
BMC works on a hi-tech traffic plan
For the first time in Mumbai, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has undertaken an initiative to comprehensively plan the traffic mobility of the city.
This plan will be largely based on the Comprehensive Transportation Study (CTS) conducted by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region development Authority (MMRDA) in 2008, with assistance from the World Bank under MUTP (Mumbai Urban Transport Project).
"We are thinking big with this plan though it is still in its preliminary stages. We want to bring about a drastic change in the traffic situation in the city today. We are even creating a software for transportation management and planning. I had previously worked on MMRDA's CTS plan, which was created for the entire MMR region to be adopted by local bodies. So this will largely be based on that, though it will go further to cater to the situation specific to the city," said additional municipal commissioner S V R Srinivas, who was previously MMRDA additional metropolitan commissioner. At BMC, Srinivas is currently in-charge of the roads, traffic and bridges department.
"The finances for the plan will fit in our current traffic budget for the year (roughly Rs 15 crore), which already included the introduction of a five-year traffic & simulation studies for scientifically ascertaining parking requirements, road widths, road lines and bridges," he added.
The mobility plan will identify travel patterns of residents, and businesses, and evolve strategies to facilitate flowing traffic. The corporation will devise a traffic system software to grade various roads of the city based on their usage and their proximity to major routes. Currently, the civic body only uses the video feed from cameras installed at major traffic junctions across Mumbai to judge the density of vehicles at any given time.
"In our traffic census for the city, we are going to map the traffic density on all roads, including minor ones. There are many arterial roads that are as vital as the Western Express Highway and the Eastern Express Highway, such as the Jogeshwari Vikhroli Link Road and S V Road. We will see if roads in such areas have to be modified or developed to aid traffic flow. We will also work on the missing links in the road network based on the Development Plan and plan future projects accordingly," Srinivas said.
As part of the mobility plan, the corporation has also roped in state government think-tank, Mumbai Transformation Support Unit (MTSU), for carrying out its traffic survey.
An institute or firm will also be appointed to carry out inter-modal studies in peak hour and non-peak hour traffic. The studies will include an analysis of the three modes of transport - public, private and intermediate public transport (IPT) vehicles such as rickshaws and taxis.
"The plan will also consider the problems of pedestrians and how their interests can be served in the system. Earlier, one-way and two-way roads were decided manually without a scientific basis. Now, such decisions will be taken systematically through research," Srinivas said.
