Green Urban Transport

Private investments is to be encouraged to improve public transport in cities under the New Green Urban Transport Scheme being planned with the Central government assistance of Rs. 25,000 Crore.

City urban transport planning shall aim for moving people instead of cars, says Minister of Urban Development M. Venkaiah Naidu at the four-day Urban Mobility India Conference and Expo inaugurated in Gandhinagar on November 8, 2016.

The Central Government is working on new policy initiatives to encourage private investments in climate friendly and sustainable public transport systems like Metro rail, Non-motorised Transport and other low carbon emitting systems in urban areas.

The new initiatives under consideration include Green Urban Transport Scheme, new Metro Rail Policy, revision of Metro Acts and Standardisation and Indigenisation of Metro systems, with aim of increasing private sector participation.

Under the Green Urban Transport Scheme, provision of non-motorised transport infrastructure, increasing access to public transport, use of clean technologies, adoption of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) will be increased.

The scheme is being considered for cities, each with a population of 500,000 and above and all capital cities.

Central government assistance of about Rs.25,000 Crore would in turn trigger private investments to meet the resource needs over the next five years.

A new Metro Policy would soon be unveiled to meet the demand through increased private sector participation in urban areas. This Policy mandates preparation of Comprehensive Mobility Plans of cities mandatory to ensure last mile connectivity with metro stations, he said.

It also seeks to bring in more innovative models of implementation besides increased standardization and indigenization to induce competition, Naidu added.

The Central government has so far provided an assistance of over Rs.65,000 Crore including sovereign debt to metro projects in different cities. This has put in operation 325 kms of metro rails in Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Jaipur.

About 517 kms of metro rail projects are under execution and another 449 kms under planning stage, said the Minister.

The Minister said that the existing two Metro Acts covering Kolkata and Delhi Metros are being integrated envisaging more delegation of powers to State Governments besides promoting Public Private Partnership and private initiatives. fii-news.com