From Roads for Cars to Streets for People
byKanika Jindal
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This webinar was hosted on March 17, 2015 from 4 - 5 pm IST (check your local time here), and was presented by Madhav Pai, Director, EMBARQ India.
Since 2000, roads have been the biggest spend item for many municipal corporations across India. More than 1000 kilometres of flyovers and elevated roads have been built in cities across the country and we are continuing to build more. For example, Mumbai has already invested over INR 20,000 crores in flyovers, elevated roads and sea-links, and will continue to invest heavily in roads. Another INR 2,000 crores has been set aside just for reconstruction and repair of roads in 2014-15 and about INR 16,000 crores has been allocated for new roads.
The vision to build faster, wider roads has done little to solve traffic problems in cities. Traffic congestion is worse, people are spending more time commuting than ever before. The situation for pedestrians has deteriorated significantly. Road safety and air pollution continue to be big killers. And so the question arises, where do we go from here? This webinar talked about how city leadership can establish principles for design and construction of urban roads that significantly improve traffic flow and make streets walkable and friendly.