“After decades of unchecked sprawl, more people than ever are moving back to the city. Dense urban living has been prescribed as a panacea for the environmental and resource crises of our time. But is it better or worse for our happiness? Are subways, sidewalks and tower dwelling an improvement on the car-dependence of sprawl?”—Charles Montgomery, Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design.

 

Global warming and climate change have forced planners around the world to re-think the planning and design of the urban street network. As India urbanizes at a rapid pace, the growth in motorized personal vehicle ownership has meant that walkability, use of non-motorized transport modes and mass transit usage has declined over the years. This trend has to be arrested, and achieving sustainable urban transport has become a primary objective for the adoption of National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP) by the Government of India (GoI).

 

National initiatives and schemes addressing this issue include the Smart Cities Mission, the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), and the recently launched Urban Green Mobility Scheme 2017. The Urban Green Mobility Scheme addresses the need to have a separate sustainable urban mobility scheme having pan-city coverage with emphasis on improving access of citizens—to address infrastructure for Bus based transport – depots, maintenance facilities, ITS etc.; bring in private entrepreneurial spirit in operations; promote Non-Motorized Transport (NMT), last mile connectivity; promote alternative fuels, electric mobility for better environment; thus focus has shifted towards the mobility and accessibility of green cities.

 

The interaction study between land-use and transport has always been a chicken and egg problem. Does the land use influence the development of strong transportation links or do important transportation corridor influence the growth of pertinent and complimentary land-use?  But whatever the perspective might be there is no denying that both the elements of this interaction is important and will always continue to shape the development in an urban context.

 

Cities are the engines of our economy— producer of innovation and wealth creation, yet they are also the main source of unsustainable trends. Emerging evidence suggests that poor urban and transport planning may be to a large extent responsible for this and may have a large impact on our cities. Ills of development and impacts of transport have a toll on the city’s environment which needs to be curbed or dissipated through the innovative solution. This solution may not be handed singly by professionals of just one discipline, thus a multi-disciplinary approach is needed to tackle the current global issues.

 

Thus to promote a multi-sectoral approach and bringing together different disciplines working within cities, this national symposium unites the professionals and researchers whose innovative ideas and solutions need to be heard.