Major traffic plan drawn up for 6 cities

A comprehensive traffic and transport plan is being formulated for the tier II cities in Karnataka.

The cities for which the CTTP is being framed are Mysore, Mangalore, Belgaum, Hubli- Dharwad, Bellary and Gulbarga, which are administered by municipal corporations.

The plans are being drafted on the directions of the Directorate for Urban Land Transport.

According to a recent study, urbanisation is going on at a fast pace. The urban population has risen 30 per cent.

However, the growth in Karnataka has been 36 per cent. As a result, transport and traffic policies for these cities need to be formulated to match their growth.

In accordance with the National Transport Policy 2006, the Karnataka government set up the Urban Land Transport Directorate in March 2007, directorate commissioner Gourav Gupta, who is also the managing director of the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation told the press in Mysore.

He was talking to them after inaugurating the work on drafting the CTTP for Mysore city involving stakeholders like Mysore City Corporation, Mysore Urban Development Authority, Railways, KSRTC, Public Works Department and representatives of NGOs.

Before taking up the work in Mysore, the MCC, MUDA and other agencies will be taken into confidence. Care would be taken to ensure the plan is implemented in coordination with the transport and other departments, he said.

The objective of the CTTP is to prepare transport and traffic plans for the six major urban centres with the estimated costs, keeping in mind the growth of those cities over the next 20 years.

The CTTP will be based on the land utilisation master plans prepared by the city authorities concerned and will ensure cost-effective and convenient transport, and traffic facility with speed and better comfort, which would ensure an orderly growth of the urban areas.

The CTTP will prescribe short-term, medium and long-term transportation policies based on technical, economic and financial evaluation.

The contract for preparing the masterplan for Mysore has been entrusted to the Delhi-based ICRA Management Consulting Services Ltd. It will prepare the plan in the next eight months, by June 2009.

It will conduct supporting surveys after collecting data on land use, traffic density, road inventory data, economic, industrial and demographic data before chalking out the CTTP in consultation with the local bodies, elected representatives and the general public.

The CTTP will be prepared using the 'Saturn' software after collecting data from the surveys and from the related departments.

Mysore city will have its own CTTP to suit its requirements bearing in mind the land usage over the next 20 years.

Development of roads, installation of ITS, facilities for pedestrians, parking, improvement of public transport facility and all such issues would form the objectives of the plan so that the basic transport and traffic requirements are met for the coming two decades, Gupta said.