The National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP), which came into existence in 2006 after more than four decades, needs to be reviewed to accommodate multi-modal transport systems , said N. Ranganathan, retired Professor, School of Planning and Architecture in New Delhi.
Mr. Ranganathan was delivering the Prof. T. Anantharajan Memorial Endowment Lecture on the ‘Role of Public Transport Planning Urban Transport’ on Wednesday. He said Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA), which was envisaged as part of the NUTP, was yet to take off as public transport system in the city was in a disjointed state with various authorities managing the different transport systems.
Mr. Ranganathan said with the urban population expected to increase more than 50% by the year 2050, transport played an important role. Lamenting the neglect of urban transport management, he said the city suffered from Red Fox syndrome where exploding demand for public transport could not be matched because of limited resources.
On the cost escalation of metro system caused by delays, Mr. Ranganathan said the cost of metro in 1970 was ₹16 crore/km but today it was ₹500 crore/km. Several factors, including land acquisition, led to the escalation, he added.
The public transport system suffered from poor productivity, which, if rectified, could increase the transport capacity without huge investment.
D. Vasudevan, president, Alumni Association College of Engineering Guindy which organised the lecture, spoke on the occasion.
