The government has decided to constitute a working group for Non-Motorised Transport (NMT) policy for the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) area for providing better conditions for pedestrians.
The policy will also address issues related to other NMT modes such as bicycle usage, according to official orders issued recently. The HMDA Commissioner will be the chairman of the working group, with the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) Commissioner as a member.
The move followed a resolution at the last meeting of the Unified Metropolitan Transportation Authority (UMTA) and based on a working paper on NMT Policy for Hyderabad Metropolitan Area (HMA) prepared by LEA Associates South Asia. The working paper has called for a ‘Pedestrian Policy’ and suggested more steps for pedestrian safety, with measures such as improving crossings where there is high vehicular conflict, appropriate location of traffic signal types, adequate street lighting to ensure pedestrian safety and barrier-free footpaths along local and arterial roads and repair of damaged footpaths.
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It has also called for an integrated approach to work out a pedestrian and public transportation system plan even as identifying the catchment area and routes from various localities to transit stations, bus terminals and facilities such as schools.
Various pedestrian proposals have been suggested, and they include sidewalks in accordance with the Indian Roads Congress (IRC) guidelines with due attention to parameters such as footpath width, surface, obstruction, encroachment, potential of vehicular conflict and continuity.
Another recommendation is installation of Pedestrian Light Control Activation (Pelican) signal operated by pedestrians for crossing and Two Groups Can Cross (TOUCAN) traffic signal, which provides safe crossing for two groups i.e., pedestrians and bicyclists and can be operated only by them.
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