TrafficInfraTech Magazine Linking People Places & Progress
There is an urgent need for research in Traffic Engineering: Nitin Gadkari
“There is an urgent need for research in Traffic Engineering. All metro cities are facing traffic jams, particularly cities like Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Kolkata. There is a need for ring roads and bypasses.
“Another major problem in India is of road accidents. Every year, we see around five lakh accidents and 1,50,000 deaths. By improving traffic engineering, I am confident we can save the life of people by and large.
“The world over a lot of innovation and research is going on in Mass Rapid Transport. It is time that our country also does some research in these areas too. India imports petrol and diesel from abroad which leads to major pollution in the country. It is time for our country to have electricity powered Mass Rapid Transport. Electricity is genuine, cost-effective, import-substitute and pollution-free. I feel, in the hill areas, we should have cable-cars and ropeway systems which can solve the problem as far as traffic sustainability is concerned.
“The government has made the decision of converting our National Highways (NHs) from 96,000km to 2 lakh km. At present, we have 52 lakh km of road length, out of which only 96,000km is National Highways — 2% of the road witnesses 40% of traffic and hence, the government has decided to build 2 lakh km of roads in the country. Then, 80% of the traffic will be on NHs. We are giving high priority and also improving the black-spots, accident spots and traffic-jam spots. We are also adopting new innovation in crash barriers, traffic signal system and road-marking system for the future of the country.
“We are also making the Road Safety Authority by which we will also help the accident victims. At the same time, we have to also think about road engineering and making Green Highways. We decided to reserve 1% of cost for plantation, transplantation and beautification. We are making roads of international standards, we are using concrete pro-mix and we are using new technology/ innovation in this sector. For the first time in the world, we have also decided to start Metrino system from Dhaula Kuan to Manesar.
“We are expecting a lot of change in the transport sector. It is time to think about pollution, traffic jams, road accidents and adopt modern systems/ technologies”.
Many senior police officers from many states who visited the Expo included S M Khatri, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Gujarat; Rahul R Nair (IPS), Assistant Inspector General of Police, Thiruvananthapuram; Sharad Singhal IPS, Superintendent of Police, Western Railway, Vadodara; P Prakash (IPS), Principal, Police Training College (Kerala); Milind Bharambe (IPS), Joint Commissioner of Police – Traffic, Mumbai; Sanjay Jadhav & Anil Kumbhare, both DCP, Mumbai; Dr. Pravin Mundhe, Deputy Commissioner of Police – Traffic, Pune; N Divya Charan Rao, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police – Traffic, Cyberabad Police; Haider Ali Zaidi (IPS), DCP – Traffic, Jaipur; Sudhir Kumar Desai, DCP, Ahmedabad; R Hitendra (IPS), Additional Commissioner of Police, Bangalore; Thilakchandra, Assistant Commissioner of Police- Traffic, Mangalore; and Jitender, IGP & Additional Commissioner of Police – Traffic, Hyderabad City.