The Shimla Municipal Corporation has started first major steps to de-congest town and regulate traffic,by rolling out the process to chart out the capital towns mobility plan. An agreement was signed between the Shimla Municipal Corporation and Delhi-based Urban Mass Transit Company on Wednesday to draw up a Traffic Master Plan. With limited scope for expansion of roads and choking of the existing road infrastructure due to a large number of vehicles being registered every year,the need for brainstorming to find solutions to daily traffic snarls had been felt for a long time now. The Urban Mass Transit Company will draw the master plan by studying 16 main points linked to the issue of de-congesting the town. The exercise is being done as part of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). MC Assistant Commissioner K K Sharma said: It has been agreed that the company will study the existing road and parking infrastructure,patterns and modes of travelling by local residents and tourists during the peak holiday season. We will also have to know the type and categories of commuters to look for a long term solution for better mass transport mode for the town. Ankush Malhotra,vice-president of the Delhi firm who signed the agreement,said the company also had a tie-up with the Andhra Pradesh governments State Road Transport Corporation.
