Need to involve urban & transport planner in highway projects passing through cities & towns: Experts

NEW DELHI: Planning and preparation of highway projects passing through urban areas must involve urban and transport planners , experts said at a conference on “Crash Safety and Physical Planning” held at IIT-Delhi on Friday.

Director of School of Planning and Architecture, Virendra Kumar Paul claimed that highway engineers have less capability to evaluate detailed project reports (DPRs). “DPR is an issue. We had trained some NHAI engineers at IIT, Delhi. We could understand that they don’t have the competence to deal with DPRs. They don’t have interest in deep diving into the DPR either because they are too bureaucratic or give that task to an external consultant,” he said in the presence of Ajay Tamta, MoS of roadtransport and highways minietry.

Highways passing through urban areas need special attention as the number of fatal crashes are usually higher due to more conflict of different road users.

SPA and IIT-Delhi offered to the ministry to take up some pilot projects of evaluating DPRs prepared for NHAI and other agencies. The IIT leadership also suggested the minister to set up a Centre of Excellence to deal with crash investigation.

Addressing the gathering, Tamta called for a paradigm shift from reactive construction to proactive, innovation-led planning, where road projects are no longer isolated engineering exercises, but integrated, multi-sectoral development tools. He said there is a need for innovations which not only improve safety, but also tackle chronic issues in road projects such as land acquisition challenges, urban traffic congestion , poor last-mile connectivity, and cost overruns.