Research

 Climate change impact assessment of comprehensive mobility plan, Jaipur, 2011

E-rickshaws have emerged as a new concept in the last few years. It is developing as an alternative to auto rickshaw because of low cost and low human effort. E-rickshaws are popular means of last mile connectivity in large cities like Delhi and means of public transport in small cities like Roorkee and Agartala. In July 2014, the e-rickshaws were banned in Delhi by the Delhi High Court over safety concerns raised through public interest litigation. The Honourable High court order emphasized the
need for regularization of e-rickshaws in cities. It was in March, 2015 the Parliament of India passed an amendment to the Motor Vehicles Act 1988 legalizing e-carts or e-rickshaws with a vehicle power not exceeding 4000 watts. There is a need to shift to sustainable mode of transport, wherever possible, as electric rickshaws are considered to be a cost effective mode.
 

The Government of India has decided to promote 100 "Smart Cities" in the country and urban mobility or the ease of being able to move from one place to another is at the core of a "Smart City". To ensure mobility for all, cities need to develop a comprehensive urban transport strategy to ensure sustainable mobility.

The concept of Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) is to have focus on the mobility of people to address urban transport problems and promote better use of existing infrastructure (i.e., improvement of public transport, pedestrian and NMT facilities) which as such leads to the integration of land use and transport development and is essential to building smart cities.

 The Government of India has decided to promote 100 "Smart Cities" in the country and urban mobility or the ease of being able to move from one place to another is at the core of a "Smart City". To ensure mobility for all, cities need to develop a comprehensive urban transport strategy to ensure sustainable mobility.

The concept of Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) is to have focus on the mobility of people to address urban transport problems and promote better use of existing infrastructure (i.e., improvement of public transport, pedestrian and NMT facilities) which as such leads to the integration of land use and transport development and is essential to building smart cities.

Life cycle cost analysis of five Urban Transport modes 

 Life cycle cost analysis of five Urban Transport modes, 2012

The Government of India has decided to promote 100 "Smart Cities" in the country and urban mobility or the ease of being able to move from one place to another is at the core of a "Smart City". To ensure mobility for all, cities need to develop a comprehensive urban transport strategy to ensure sustainable mobility.

The concept of Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) is to have focus on the mobility of people to address urban transport problems and promote better use of existing infrastructure (i.e., improvement of public transport, pedestrian and NMT facilities) which as such leads to the integration of land use and transport development and is essential to building smart cities.

 Renovation of Kolkata tram to Light Rail Transit and the Tram train concept, 2012

 Report on issues and risks for Monorail Projects and Metro System for Bangalore Metro BMRCL, 2012

In order to promote sustainable urban transport in India, the Ministry of Urban Development honours exemplary work shown by different state organizations and presents Awards for Excellence in Urban Transport. The awards for excellence were given away to cities for the very first time in 2008. Since then there has been a continuous process of methodically selecting projects that stand out in terms of their exclusivity, ingenuity reliability and the project’s scope for replication in other cities.  Uptill 2011, 30 such projects have been awarded for excellence. With no continuous monitoring process of these awarded projects, there is no available documentation on the progress and status of these projects. IUT has initiated a study to carry out an assessment and review of each of these awarded projects to assess these projects on account of their sustainability. This four months study will result in be in the form of an IUT publication on Best Practices in Urban Transport in India. This will compile only those projects which have been able to sustain and have grown in size and scale of operations and have resulted in proving beneficial for the users at large.

 Review of Unified Metropolitan Transport Authorities in India 

 Review of Unified Metropolitan Transport Authorities in India, 2013

Indian cities have been witnessing rapid motorisation. The total number of motor vehicles in many cities have more than just doubled in the last 10 years, causing severe congestion, air pollution, increasing incidence of road accidents and huge consumption of petroleum fuels. It is well recognised that poor transportation has the potential to adversely impact the economic efficiency of our cities as well as the health and well-being of city inhabitants. Although the country formulated a National Urban Transport Policy in April, 2006 emphasising on the prioritisation of public transport and non-motorised modes over personal motor vehicles, the pace of motorisation has continued. Clearly, there is a need to sit back and review what has happened so that future strategies could be evolved in a way which deals with the emerging problems effectively.

 Service Level Bench marking study 2 Draft final report of cities i.e Delhi, Patna, Vijaywada, Jammu – Katra, Jaipur  and Nanded, 2013

 Service Level Bench marking study final report of 6 cities  i.e  Delhi Patna, Vijaywada, Jammu – Katra, Jaipur  and Nanded, 2013

 Service Level Bench marking study methodology, 2013

 Service Level Bench marking study, 2 Interim Report i.e Delhi, Patna, Vijayawada, Jammu – Katra, Jaipur  and Nanded, 2013

 Service Level Bench marking study, 6 Inception Report of cities - Delhi, Patna, Vijaywada, Jammu – Katra, Jaipur  and Nanded, 2013

The  Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) launched the Handbook on Service Level Benchmarks (SLB) in 2011 which directs all JnNURM cities to identify their Level of Service (LoS) in Public Transport Facilities, Pedestrian Infrastructure Facilities, Non-Motorized Transport (NMT) Facilities, Level of usage of Intelligent Transport System (ITS) facilities, Travel speed along major corridors, Parking facilities, Road safety, Pollution levels ntegrated land use transport system and financial sustainability of public transport.The parameters are meant to highlight the performance as would be monitored by the ‘Urban Local Bodies’ / ‘Development Authority’/ Parastatal Agency. In order to initiate the process of benchmarking in cities, MoUD mandated IUT to undertake a pilot study in six cities of India on measurement of SLB. This study was foreseen to have multiple benefits. The first and foremost would have been to assess the impact of investment made in Urban Transport under JnNURM. In addition to this, the study would help in identifying general short comings in infrastructure and service delivery and would therefore guide in formulating a general policy for future interventions and investment requirements in urban transport.

The National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP) of 2006 recommended setting up of a Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority for all million plus cities in India in order to ensure that urban mobility  is planned in a holistic and integrated manner. Since 2006, several cities have moved towards setting up of such authorities either at the city/metropolitan level or at the state level. However it is seen that there is no clear standard that has been followed in setting up the UMTAs. Some are backed by a legislation which some have been set on an executive order. All of these have been merely performing the role of strategic planning and coordination in their respective cities. Some of the bodies have been formed on paper but are dysfunctional. Moreover, the presence of such organizations is often observed as an additional burden on the members as they are unable to give time to attend or organize the meetings. IUT has thus initiated a study to first inventories the existing UMTAs in all cities/states of the country and analyse their structure and functioning. The ultimate aim of the study is to assess the performance of the existing UMTAs and indicate their usefulness in a typical urban area with several parallel bodies working on transport. The analysis and output of this study will be used in preparing a Status Report on UMTAs in India and suggest a “roadmap”  for cities which are yet to create UMTAs.

 Buses constitute less than 1% of the total registered vehicles in cities (Road Transport Yearbook, 2011-12). In the absence of an organized bus service in cities, the void is being filled by intermediate public transport (IPT) modes like 3-wheelers auto-rickshaws, Tempos and Tata magic etc which provide public transport services.

The recent recommendations of the working group on urban transport both for the 12th Five Year Plan and the NTDPC stress the need to improve the IPT Services as these vehicles have a potential to provide clean mobility and low emissions solutions. Therefore the need arises to improve and upgrade the IPT vehicles and services in Indian Cities.

The travel demand is expected to increase rapidly in the face of increasing population and economic growth especially in small and medium towns in India. However, these towns have not been the focus of most of central government funding programs resulting in deterioration of transport scenario. Hence, to assess the urban transport in the country, 14 cities were studied.