Doyen of traffic & transportation engineering in the country and author of the pioneering ‘Hyderabad Area Transportation Study (HATS)’ in the 1980s S. Raghavachari died in Hyderabad on Tuesday. He was 76 and was suffering from cancer.
Born in 1939 in Chetla Mupparam village in Warangal district, he did his civil engineering from Osmania University. Prof. Raghavachari, also post-graduate from University of Roorkee, was also part of faculty of the Regional Engineering College of Warangal, now National Institute of Technology (NIT), training or guiding three generations of engineering students in highway engineering and urban transportation planning. His most notable contribution is the HATS study, conducted between 1983-88, which became a benchmark for urban transportation planning for Indian cities. His comprehensive integrated transportation planning for Mumbai Metropolitan Development Region (MMRDA), also known as Transform or Transportation Study for Mumbai covering more than four thousand square kilometres of area, is another landmark study leading to metro rail, mono-rail and bus rapid systems projects underway.
As an advisor to the Central and State Governments, he had chaired several expert committees and made path braking suggestions to improve urban and inter-city transportation in the country. Hyderabad Metro Rail MD N.V.S. Reddy points out that the light rail system plan for the city proposed by the professor has led to the current metro rail project. He advised GHMC in flyovers building and executing several other traffic & transportation works. Prof. Raghavachari is survived by a son and a daughter.
