Mobility plan awaits Gehlot's clearance

JAIPUR: The way Pink City will travel in future is going to be decided this week. The urban development ministry will table the comprehensive
mobility plan (CMP) for chief minister Ashok Gehlot's approval.
The CMP is a transport sector master plan and investment programme for future transport projects in the city. It includes short, medium and long-term projects and stresses on public transport and non-motorised modes of transport.
The project, along with BRTS and Metro, will decide the future travel policy of the city. "The CMP will be formally presented to the state government. The revised detailed project report (DPR) for BRTS is already under consideration. Both will be forwarded to the Centre soon," says a senior urban development department official.
The mobility plan has been designed to meet the travel demands of the city expected over the next two decades. According to CMP survey, by 2031, population within Jaipur region will be about 67 lakhs. About 5.52 lakhs peak hour motorised trips will be required in the year, nearly 2.8 times more the present day peak hour trips.
Covering 1,464 sq km in the Walled City, JDA and JMC areas, a road network of nearly 750 km was brought under the survey. Parking and encroachment are cited as major hindrance and due to disparity in growth, traffic movement is mostly limited from the periphery to the core city.
"There is a lack of designated official and residential division in the city and coupled with inadequacy of public transport system, it generates huge volumes of intermediary and personalised traffic, mostly on arterial roads leading to congestion," said an urban development official. "The future urban development policies will also be influenced by the suggestions made in the CMP."
An annual average growth of 4.5%, twice of the nation's urban growth rate makes Jaipur a fast-growing city. Over the last decade, the city has experienced a growth in the range of 6-12% per annum. Both commercial and administrative capital of Rajasthan, Jaipur also remains a sought-after tourist destination and attracts around 3,000 tourists every day.
However, prosperity has been accompanied with increase in traffic load and road accidents. The increasing road congestion has become a routine problem for Jaipur which is likely to surpass many other cities which were ahead of it in 2001 census, in which Jaipur ranks 11th amongst the mega cities of the country.
The revised DPR of the much-delayed BRTS and proposed metro project has also been taken into consideration in the CMP. The DPR of both the mega transport plans are awaiting cabinet approval before being forwarded to the Centre.