In a bid to promote Non-Motorised Transport (NMT) in the city,organizations such as Parisar,Save Pune Traffic Movement (SPTM),Cycle Pratishthan,Centre for Environment Education (CEE) and Lokayat will celebrate World Car-Free Day on September 22. The organisations have appealed citizens to use cycles or public transport on this day and keep vehicular traffic to a minimum. Also,those having vehicles with even number plates should use their vehicles on September 22 and travel by public transport on September 23,while those with odd number plates should do vice versa,so that traffic can be reduced to around 50 per cent on these two days. We had plans of organising a cycle rally,make two roads walking plazas and so on,but owing to the swine flu scare,we have kept the plans limited to V1-V2 meaning using vehicles with even number plates on September 22 and odd number plates the next day, said Ashok Shrinivas,member,Parisar. There are several benefits in using NMT,such as walking and cycling,with regard to health,environment and so on. Roads are for several groups and not just for motorists and vehicles. Today,many citizens choose to walk. The Indian Road Congress has prescribed standards to be followed while designing roads. Also,the National Urban Transport Policy encourages state governments to implement NMT infrastructure and the Pune Municipal Corporation gets large funds under JNNURM to implement the same. There is a NMT Cell in the PMC,which is responsible for footpaths and cycle tracks, said Laxmikant Deshpande of CEE. On a normal day,the ratio of odd to even number plated vehicles is 50-50. On September 22-23,our volunteers will determine the number of vehicles and depending on the results,a further course of action will be decided, said Rajendra Siddhaye,convenor,SPTM.
