Comprehensive mobility plans soon for nine tier-III towns

As growing urbanisation is stretching the existing road and transport infrastructure in municipal towns beyond its limits, the State government has called for Comprehensive Mobility Plans (CMP) for nine towns to ease traffic congestion and put in place carbon-efficient transportation system.

It has entrusted the job of drawing up the plans to the Amaravati Metro Rail Corporation (AMRC), which did an extensive study of the evolved urban mobility systems abroad for the proposed Vijayawada Metro Rail.

The AMRC invited Request for Proposals (RFP) in two packages for coastal Andhra (Eluru, Kakinada, Nellore, Ongole, and Rajahmundry) and Rayalaseema (Anantapur, Chittoor, Kadapa, and Kurnool).

AMRC Managing Director N.P. Ramakrishna Reddy told The Hindu that four companies — ICRA Limited, Larsen and Toubro, Delhi Integrated Multimodal Transit System Limited, and Urban Mass Transit Company Limited — had sent the RFP and clarifications were being issued to them as per norms and financial proposals were yet to be opened.

The bidders are supposed to have completed at least five projects in consultancy services for preparing the CMP or low-carbon mobility plans, which have been given priority to build transport infrastructure that does not aggravate the problem of pollution in the nine tier III towns with a population of less than a million each.

Mr. Reddy said, under the CMP, the focus would be laid on widening the arterial roads and examining the feasibility of establishing the Bus Rapid Transit Systems (BRTS) wherever possible, keeping the future requirements in view.

The government’s intention is to introduce less carbon-intensive modes of transport in the long run, for which the towns basically need to have wider roads that can possibly accommodate integrated models of public transport.

The CMP encompass cyclists, pedestrians, and even canal navigation, and the plans will be for the next two decades when the towns are expected to burst at their seams. Parking facilities will also be factored in strategising the mobility plans, as the inadequacy of dedicated spaces for keeping the vehicles has already become a big problem.

Another thing that is going to be studied is travel behaviour, which plays a crucial role in working out models that are economically viable too.

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