Government taps IITs for urban transport research

The ministry of urban development has signed momoranda of understanding (MoUs) with IIT Delhi, IIT Chennai, IIT Warangal and CEPT University Ahmedabad, some of the country's premier technological institutes, for setting up centers of excellence in urban transport planning and development.

The ministry has allocated total grants worth Rs31.31 crore to these institutes, which would be distributed in a span of four years. Out of this, Rs7.83 crore have already been disbursed.

To begin with, these institutes would work in the area of urban transport design, planning and development of intelligent traffic system (ITS), management of bus rapid transport (BRT) and other aspects of urban transport, a government release said today.

Under the MoUs signed with representatives of the institutes, these centres would become resource institutions to deal with urban transport planning and development.

The central government would provide financial assistance to these institutions for the first four years, while the institutions would ccontinue to provide technical assistance to the ministry in its function in the field of urban transport on an ongoing basis.

These centres would focus on applied research, run post-graduate programmes to meet the requirements of highly skilled professionals in the field, impart training to the officer of central and state governments, publish research paper and brought-out work as repository of data base/information on urban transport practices in the country.