CB BureauTo go the green way and encourage public transportation, the urban development ministry launched the Sustainable Urban Transport Project (SUTP) which will be first implemented in five Indian cities.
‘This project has been inspired by the concern at the alarming rate of people switching over to use of personal vehicles for urban travel, which will inevitably result in sharp increase in greenhouse gas emissions,’ Minister of Urban Development S. Jaipal Reddy said while launching the project.
The Rs 1,400 crore project is being implemented in assistance with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
‘Through this project, emphasis will be on the public mode of travel, bringing more buses on the roads, a stringent parking policy, designing of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridors and better urban transport infrastructure so that people start using public transport more,’ the minister said.
‘Apart from traffic congestion, an increase in personal motorised vehicles has added to the pollution levels and increase in traffic accidents,’ he added.
The SUTP aims to train more than 1,000 professionals in urban transport to achieve this target as well as launch awareness campaigns. The five cities where different demonstration projects will be implemented are Pimpri-Chinchwad and Pune in Maharashtra, Naya Raipur in Chhatisgarh, Indore in Madhya Pradesh and Mysore in Karnataka.
Cities like Guwahati in Assam, Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala and Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh have also shown interest in joining in.