To decongest the traffic chaos and improve mobility in India’s city roads, the Urban Development Ministry is initiating a study to develop an infrastructure model to ease traffic congestion.Wilbur Smith Associates Private Ltd (WSAPL), a subsidiary of the US-based traffic and transportation planning company, Wilbur Smith Associates, has been selected to conduct sample surveys in 30 cities, including metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata.The other cities, which were finalised yesterday, include Jaipur, Gangtok, Shimla, Ahmedabad and Surat.The report, which will be ready within a year, will cost Rs 1.32 crore. The company presented its inception report to the ministry this week.WSPL was selected among at least six bidders through a tender process four months ago, sources said. The study called Traffic Engineering & Transportation Planning will focus on creating an infrastructure model based on its research of different cities and suggest methods of traffic dispersal and creation of new corridors. The survey will become a base model for replicating in other cities in the future, sources said.The methodology will be based on traffic surveys, household interviews, as well as secondary data and sample interviews of more than 4,000 people in big cities. It will consider several parameters such as the shape of the city, population, the available public transport and per capita income. The study will also offer suggestions relating to public transportation requirement of cities.At present, dependence on public transport system in cities like Mumbai is over 70 per cent while in Delhi it’s about 30-35 per cent. In Chennai, it’s about 40 per cent whereas in towns like Kanpur it’s as low as 5 per cent. The ministry had last conducted a study of India’s traffic situation in 1998. This is the first time that the focus is being laid on infrastructure modelling to address the issue of traffic snarl-ups.
