‘India shouldn’t blindly imitate foreign transportation system’
LUCKNOW: Urban transportation and planning expert and president of Hall Planning and Engineering, USA, Richard A Hall said here on Wednesday that India should not attempt to blindly follow a transportation system that was foreign to their cultural ethos as it may or may not work for them.
Hall was giving a presentation at Lucknow University on how smart cities should be developed.
The theme of his interactive session was “Context based mobility for smart cities: Integration of Smart City transportation modes”.
He said the busy Hazratganj crossing of Lucknow reminded him of New York of 1940s. According to him, Indian drivers are under a lot of stress when they drive because traffic moves haywire and the blow horn signage at the rear of heavy vehicles is also required on Indian roads because of the heavy traffic.
He compared the merits and demerits of the grid and maze system of developing roadways. He also chalked the changes in the town planning wrought in by the invention and development of cars by Benz and Ford and explained how the merits of the automobiles owner turned to be a bane for the commuters.
Richard explained planning the cities in a way which allows the intermingling of different economic groups and ensures that cultural isolation is minimal.
He touched upon how the future of smart cities would differ with the continuously decreasing energy reserves.
The session was chaired by Prof Manoj Dixit, head, department of public administration.
HALL VISITED INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY FOR AN INTERACTIVE SESSION FOCUSED ON CONNECTING SMART CITY EXPERTS FROM USA WITH THEIR COUNTERPARTS IN INDIA TO SHARE BEST PRACTICES IN SMART CITY POLICY, DESIGN AND ADMINISTRATION.
Prof Dixit agreed with Hall and further explained how land in India is not a mere corporeal entity but defines and contributes to a person’s personality and identity and thus there are heterogeneous issues which hamper land inquisition.
Prof Dixit added that India enjoys a very dubious reputation as the country of maximum road accidents and this issue needs to be addressed.
Mandeep Kaur, all India principal program advisor, public affairs section, American embassy, New Delhi, shared her inputs on building smart cities and also mentioned that Hall would travel to Allahabad to study the street patterns for its development into a smart city.
Prof Nishi Pandey, English and Modern European Languages department also addressed the gathering.
Hall also visited Institute of Engineering and Technology, Sitapur Road for an interactive session with the B.Tech and M.Tech students and faculty of civil engineering department under the USA embassy’s “Building Smart Cities through Educational Linkages” program focused on connecting smart city experts, academicians and researchers from USA with their counterparts in India to share best practices in smart city policy, design and administration.
Here he discussed various issues pertaining to urban transportation and planning for smart city.
During the session director of the institute, Prof AS Vidyarthi and head of civil engineering department Prof NB Singh were also present.