The 15th Urban Mobility India (UMI) International Conference-cum-Expo organised by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) will be held at Grand Hyatt, Kochi, from November 4 to 6.
The UMI meet is held every year as part of National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP) 2006 that emphasises on building capabilities at the State and city levels to address problems associated with urban transport. The policy lays down the guidelines for developing equitable and sustainable urban transport systems for all sections of society.
The UMI conference will be jointly inaugurated by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri. The managing directors of metro rail companies, CEOs of transport undertakings, senior Central and State officials, and experts from abroad, including from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, are expected to attend.
Kochi was chosen as the venue since the commissioning of the Water Metro project was around the corner and it had executed many works related to urban transport, including efforts for inter-modal integration of the metro with other public-transport systems, Jaideep, Officer on Special Duty (Urban Transport) of MoHUA, told mediapersons here on Thursday.
This year, the conference is focused on the theme ‘Azadi@75 – Sustainable Aatma Nirbhar Urban Mobility’. There will be ten technical sessions, five round-table sessions, a conclave, two plenary and eight research symposiums. The topics to be discussed include ‘Aatmanirbhar India – vocal for local in sustainable urban mobility’, multi-modal integration, mobility as a service (MaaS), sustainable PPP in bus transport, and climate change and its impact on urban transport.
The valedictory session will see awards being distributed to cities that have done commendable work in the field of urban transport. The exhibition will display among others, best practices in urban transport in India and abroad, latest in transport technology, and services.
On the two-year-old Kochi Metropolitan Transport Authority (KMTA), the sole MTA in India with legislative backing, struggling to survive (having just a managing director and no experts, due to non-allocation of technical experts by the State government), Mr. Jaideep said the MoHUA could do little since it was a State subject. “The Ministry has issued clear guidelines for MTAs and it is hoped that KMTA will be a game-changer for the country. It is also important that metro rail systems have a sound feeder network to enable first and last mile connectivity since they would considerably increase ridership in metros,” he added.
Referring to the Centre’s Metro Rail Policy, he said alongside metro it had also permitted metro lite system, which cost just 40% of a conventional metro, and also metro neo system, which cost only 25% to 30% of conventional metro. Metro lite is an at-grade or elevated rail based system having much lower axle load than metro while metro neo was more like vestibule buses and had rubber tyres. It is at the processing stage in Nashik and under consideration in Gorakhpur.
Kochi Metro Rail Limited Managing Director Loknath Behera said the first lot of five of the 78 Water Metro ferries was ready for commissioning in the High Court-Vypeen-Bolghatty corridor. The metro agency has informed the State of its readiness to operate the vessels. Another five vessels will be ready for operation by December.
