New Delhi, July 2
A national urban transport policy seeking to promote use of public transport over private vehicles will be placed for approval before the Union Cabinet this month.
Union Urban Development Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said the policy envisages building mass transport systems for all cities with a population of more than 10 lakhs.
“The policy will be brought before the Cabinet sometime this month,” Mr Azad said here today. The Ministry had discussed the draft policy with the state governments and union territories earlier this week.
The draft policy seeks to bring about a more equitable use of road space with people and not vehicles as the focus. It suggests a unified transport authority for all cities having more than 10 lakh population. The policy will make it mandatory for developers to provide parking facilities while constructing residential or commercial structures. It will entail building expressways around cities and dedicated terminals for trucks to reduce traffic burden in cities.
The policy seeks to discourage private transport to reduce traffic congestion in cities, encourage use of non-motorised transport like bicycles, and reduce pollution by using clean technologies.
It discourages use of personal vehicles by way of high parking fee and local levies on motor fuel.
The policy envisages that each city must have an integrated master plan, which includes planning of urban transport systems. In developing such plans, attention had to be paid to channelise the future growth of a city around a pre-planned transport network, rather than develop a transport system after uncontrolled development had taken place.
