‘Promote walking and cycling to reduce pollution levels’

A three-day capacity building programme on Sustainable Urban Transport organized by the Institute of Urban Transport (India), Ministry of Urban Devolvement (Government of India) began from Wednesday at the Regional Centre for Urban & Environmental Studies, Lucknow.

The workshop was inaugurated by RK Singh, chief engineer, LMRC. In his inaugural address, he focused on the need to promote walking and cycling to cut down on high pollution levels. He also advised participating officials to walk around in the city to know the ground realities first hand. Er AK Gupta, additional director, Regional Centre for Urban and Environmental Studies, Lucknow, also addressed the participants and shared his experience in the transport sector.

The participants of the training programme include municipal officials and officials from the transport departments of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Over the course of three days, the participants will have a chance to know about the best practices around the world and also will be able to share the challenges faced by them.

This event aims at developing leadership capabilities in urban mobility planning. It seeks to create awareness of what integrated mobility planning involves, what are its different components and how it needs to be undertaken. It will use a hands on learning approach, making extensive use of case studies, group exercises and site visits – all aimed at highlighting linkages between the different components of the urban transport system.

Urban transport has received considerable attention since 2006. However, it has been recognised that limited human resources in the urban transport at both national and local levels is a major constraint. The workshop will seek to bring all the pieces together through case studies and group work.