ITDP India

Promoting sustainable and equitable transportation worldwide

Steady Progress on the Pune-Pimpri-Chinchwad BRT

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Pimpri-Chinchwad, the robust industrial city in central Maharashtra state, is making exciting progress on its BRT network, with construction on the first station near completion and work on corridors one and two forging ahead. The BRT in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad is an ambitious vision for a network of 40 kilometers and 90 stations connecting two municipalities and reaching nearly a million residents. Now the pace of progress is picking up, and both cities are refocusing energy on turning the plans for a strong transit network into reality.

Dapodi Station, in Pimpri-Chinchwad, is the first station in the network to be completed, and workers have made strong progress on the dedicated lanes, with approximately 60% of the corridor complete. In addition, in Pune, the regional BRT operator Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) recently put out a tender to develop business and operational plans for their BRT system. As plans are fine-tuned and finalized, ITDP has worked to support the process and to improve pedestrian access and non-motorized transit around stations. Most recently, a workshop examined the Govind Garden intersection and as a result, the city implemented stronger crosswalks, sidewalks, and clearer lane divisions (See images below). These important steps demonstrate both cities’ commitment to running a strong, high-quality BRT system.

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After the workshop, the city built a mock up of the proposed design to test traffic flows.

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Today, the intersection has been redesigned to ensure efficient BRT and traffic movement on the corridor,

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Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad are neighboring cities in central India, and are both part of the larger Pune Metropolitan Area.

The Pune-Pimpri-Chinchwad BRT is an extensive network that will offer new transit options within both Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, as well as connections between the two cities. Though the infrastructure is being implemented by each municipality separately, strong coordination will allow the two systems to be fully integrated. ITDP has worked closely on the project, and with the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) at each stage of the process.

Learning lessons from previous pilots with BRT in the region, the Pune-Pimpri-Chinchwad BRT has been designed to meet international high-quality BRT standards as well as the area’s unique needs. The operational plan, developed in partnership with ITDP, calls for a hybrid BRT system, where buses run inside dedicated lane for the majority of the route, with some buses traveling beyond the corridor to serve as a traditional bus service and extend the system’s reach. As a result, buses will have doors on both sides: at-level BRT doors on the right, and traditional bus steps down on the left. The corridor will incorporate segregated bus lanes, level-boarding within the corridor, and GPS vehicle tracking for station display and fleet coordination.

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Under the proposed service plan, bus riders would see large reductions in wait time between buses

When complete, the BRT network will deliver significant benefits to bus riders and city residents alike. The Pune Metropolitan Area, which encompasses both Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, already has over 5 million residents and is growing rapidly. For commuters, the result will be a reduction in average overall waiting time by 50%. More than 85% of passengers will wait less than 10 minutes for a bus- a monumental improvement on the current system, where 50% of riders wait longer than 10 minutes, and many much longer.

The new system will provide more coverage with fewer, less convoluted routes than those currently running. Efficient fleet use and reduced vehicle miles will save the city money, and reduce costs for riders. By making room for smarter transport and reducing the focus on  personal vehicles Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad together are making a strong statement that BRT is the right choice for their citizens, and will keep the cities moving.

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2014 Sustainable Transport Award Finalist: Indore, India

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The City of Indore a major commercial hub and the largest city in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Like many Indian cities, Indore is facing a growing population, increasing congestion, and environmental degradation due to ever-higher vehicle use. To address these issues, in 2013 Indore launched iBus, the second true BRT corridor in India. For its successful implementation of iBus in a challenging political environment, Indore is a finalist for the 2014 Sustainable Transport Award.

In May 2013, Indore launched iBus, the second true BRT corridor in India after Ahmedabad’s Janmarg BRT. iBus provides a safe, comfortable, and efficient transport for 30,000 passengers per day on an 11 km corridor. This is the first of three phases of a 120 km BRT network along AB Road, one of the most congested streets in Indore. A hallmark of iBus’ implementation has been public input. Through public presentations and community meetings, the citizens of Indore become strong supporters of the iBus system.


Indore has already set a new standard for public transport in India and surpassed all known benchmarks for bus-based urban public transport in the country. iBus has exceeded ridership estimates with its first phase, and is providing an average of 26 percent reduction in travel time along the corridor. As the system is expanded, the city expects to see even greater impacts. At present, 16 buses operate on the corridor, from 7:00 AM in the morning to 10:30 PM at night. As the BRTS system extends its network, it will continue to improve traffic conditions in the city and enhance the overall quality of life for the residents of Indore.

BRT has been identified as a critical component of sustainable growth in Indian cities, and the success of iBus is an exciting tipping-point project for the adoption of BRT across the country. It demonstrates that affordable, high quality public transport is possible and is a necessity for rapidly growing cities, and is proving to be a model for other municpalities looking to address transport concerns. As a result of the initial success of the Indore BRT, the city of Bhopal (the capital of Madhya Pradesh and second largest city in the state) has already fast tracked the implementation their own BRT, which will serve more than 30,000 people per day.

Despite the success of iBus, the city has been grappling with political pressure to open the designated bus-only lanes to private car traffic. The city is fighting an order of the High Court to allow cars to use the lanes. The final decision is pending, and the STA Committee supports Indore’s fight to keep the BRT moving by keeping out cars.

Since 2005, the STA has been given annually to a city that has implemented innovative and sustainable transportation projects in the past year. These strategies must improve mobility for all residents, reduce transportation greenhouse and air pollution emissions, as well as improve safety and access for cyclists and pedestrians.

The 2014 finalists will be honored at a reception at the Washington Hilton International Ballroom on January 14, 2014, during the Transport Research Board annual conference in Washington, DC.

Past winners of the Sustainable Transport Award include:  Mexico City, Mexico (2013); Medellin, Colombia and San Francisco, United States (2012); Guangzhou, China (2011); Ahmedabad, India (2010); New York City, USA (2009); London, UK (2008); Paris, France (2008); Guayaquil, Ecuador (2007); Seoul, South Korea (2006), and Bogotá, Colombia (2005).

The New Chennai Streetscape

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With technical assistance from ITDP India, the Corporation of Chennai has implemented the first kilometer of a planned 30 kms of new, pedestrian-friendly footpaths. The footpaths are part of the larger vision established through Our Cities Ourselves (OCO) Chennai, a collaborative visioning program to imagine and achieve a more livable, equitable, and sustainable future. The new footpaths, primarily in the Egmore area of Chennai, formalize and expand sidewalks and areas for pedestrian traffic, making them safer and more accessible. The projects were implemented along heavily trafficked streets, including Police Commissioner Office Road, Pantheon Road, and Halls Road. By reclaiming space for pedestrians, the footpaths are an important step in making Chennai a place that prioritizes people over cars. The footpath design was guided by ITDP’s principles for street design, Better Streets, Better Cities.

Chennai’s new footpaths are just the beginning. ITDP India is working with the city to implement good pedestrian footpaths along all of the city’s bus routes, as well as build bikeways, protected bus lanes, and pedestrian plazas throughout the city. Using street design guidelines developed by ITDP for India, programs like OCO are creating a strong vision for the future, and giving us the tools to make it happen.

In Chennai, Our Cities Ourselves Focused on People, Parking and Density

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“Cities are for people,” said Mr. Phanindra Reddy, a Municipal Secretary of the Chennai Metro Rail (CMRL) in the state of Tamil Nadu, India, “this is the mantra we have to keep in mind when we do our work.” This sentiment was echoed by keynote speaker, city planner and educator Peter J. Park, and Senior Town Planner Neela Munshi of the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority, at ITDP’s Our Cities Ourselves workshop in Chennai, India.

The workshop, “Enabling Transit-oriented Development”, focused on station area planning around the Koyembedu metro station, set to be the first to open when Chennai metro rail begins operation within the next three years. Peter Park opened the workshop with an overview of international best practices in TOD, and discussion of his work as a city planner for the cities of Denver and Milwaukee. This included increasing neighborhood density, creating more infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians, and reforming land use codes to allow for less parking and more walkable, accessible places around transit. One project that piqued quite a bit of interest was Park’s removal of a flyover in Milkaukee, and his demonstration and encouragement of highway removal in other cities around the world. This was of significant interest in Chennai, as flyovers are a common sight, and building more of them is often considered inevitable.


Ms. Neela Munshi gave an engaging presentation on the planned transformation of Ahmedabad, which boasts India’s most high quality bus rapid transit system – Janmarg. New land use regulations allow for greater density in the city’s central business district, new affordable housing provisions and reduced parking requirements. Ahmedabad abolished lot coverage requirments to enhance the public realm by bringing buildings closer to property lines. The city now also grants density bonuses to developers who wish to build more density around transit, which will help pay for streetscape improvements.

Mr. Kumar Rajaraman, Managing Director of Chennai Metro Rail, noted that the visions produced as part of Our Cities Ourselves showing new footpaths and dedicated bus lanes is the kind of forward-looking planning that is missing in Chennai. “People need to imagine what the future of Chennai can be, and work to make it better,” said Mr. Rajaraman.

OCO Chennai is a workshop series and exhibition supported by ClimateWorks Foundation and Volvo Research and Educational Foundations, that offers solutions to support walking, cycling, and mass transport options for a more sustainable future.

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OCO Chennai Builds Support for Non-Motorized Transport

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In the City of Chennai, the welfare of pedestrians and cyclists is often overlooked as crowded roads teeming with cars and rickshaws become even more congested and demand more space. Sidewalks are rare, quality sidewalks even rarer, and crosswalks, when they exist, are often ignored. Promoting non-motorized transport is a priority at ITDP, and requires a radical rethinking of the street space. By calling attention to the problems, crafting creative solutions, and building support, ITDP is helping Chennai and many other cities reshape their urban environments.

The Our Cities Ourselves Chennai workshop brought together many prominent voices in shaping Chennai’s future, including the Commissioner of the Chennai Corporation, Vikram Kapur (center, blue shirt) and Chennai Mayor Saidai Samiyappan Duraisamy.

Over the weekend, ITDP India organized a day-long workshop around non-motorized infrastructure issues in the city of Chennai as part of the Our Cities Ourselves workshop series, supported by Volvo Research and Education Foundation (VREF) and ClimateWorks Foundation. The Chennai City Commissioner and Mayor were in attendance, supporting new footpaths across the city and greater street safety. Caroline Samponaro, Senior Director of Campaigns and Organizing at Transportation Alternatives in the US, shared her experience of working with the government in New York in bringing change to the city’s streets. “Building dedicated bus lanes, cycle tracks and footpaths is the greatest thing any Corporation can do. And if you build it, people will use it,” she said.

Attendees of the workshop included engineers from various city departments and local neighborhood districts, members of the disability alliance, local bicycle advocates, traffic police, and members of good governance groups. Workshop participants developed ideas for street improvements in smaller groups, and presented their recommendations to the Commissioner of the Corporation of Chennai for consideration.

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Our Cities Ourselves (OCO) 2013 in Chennai, India, with support from the Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA), Corporation of Chennai (COC), Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), Tamil Nadu Commissionerate of Municipal Administration (TNCMA) and other partner organizations, is an exhibition and events program that offers solutions to support walking, cycling and mass transportation options for a more sustainable future. Highlighting international best practices, the program will foster an exchange of ideas on present urban conditions, key challenges, and solutions to realize our vision for better streets and better cities in Chennai.

New Video: Janmarg BRT Changing Transit in Ahmedabad, India

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Touting the Janmarg BRT systems success, ITDP India released a video promoting the many benefits of sustainable transportation in Ahmedabad, India. Janmarg, which opened in 2009, paved the way for further sustainable transportation projects in India, and has become a model for BRT in the region. Projects such as the Indore BRT and the Rajkot BRTS, which recently reached 14,000 riders a day, were based on the Janmarg BRT. Ahmedabad was the 2010 winner of the Sustainable Transport Award, in large part due to Janmarg’s success in transforming the city’s transit landscape. The video explains how BRT cuts through the traditional problems of transportation with its accessible, efficient, and environmentally-friendly design.

Gauging Transportation Needs in Nashik, India

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Conducting a household survey in a low-income area in Nashik

In early March, ITDP joined Clean Air Initiative-Asia to implement a rapid mobility assessment tool in Nashik, a city in western India about 150km northeast of Mumbai. The project, funded by UN-Habitat, seeks to create a quick and inexpensive way to gauge transportation needs in cities with little existing data. After reviewing existing data collection methods a new rapid assessment tool was developed, which consists of two parts: a household survey and a focus group discussion. The household survey aims to collect information about many different parts of the city while the focus group discussion aims to gather data from underrepresented groups whose important input might not be covered in the household survey. The city of Nashik was selected for the first test of the new tool.

In Nashik, the focus group discussion was held on Sunday, March 3, and included representatives of the blind, the disabled, women, the medical community, and the traffic police. The discussion brought forth a variety of perspectives on transportation, with particularly informative input from women and the disabled who discussed the daily challenges of safety and access that they faced when traveling around the city.

The household survey was conducted with help from the NDMVP’s Nashik College of Architecture-Nashik, National Institute of Technology (NIT)-Nashik, and the Institute for Design Environment and Architecture (IDEA) College. These student spent four hours on a Sunday learning the survey form and practicing techniques. The actual survey was conducted on three weekdays in over 12 neighborhoods, which were scouted ahead of time by the survey team. Students visited every part of Nashik, from informal settlements in the heart of the city to new, high-income areas in the outskirts.

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Focus group discussion in Nashik

With oversight from university professors and the survey team, students went to a variety of households in each neighborhood. Over the course of three days, over 1,000 surveys were conducted. Each survey, conducted by a team of two students, took approximately one hour, and most households were happy to provide information in order to improve transportation in Nashik. From the survey, ITDP and Clean Air Asia learned a great deal about the City of Nashik and about conducting surveys in the Indian context. ITDP will further refine this tool for use in other cities that lack transportation data.

Everything is Everywhere: Land Use in India

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Indian streets are a messy mix of people, cyclists, rickshaws, taxis, cars, buses, even the occasional cow. But within this mess is the vibrancy and fluidity of street life, like a tasty street soup where seemingly unlikely things come together and strange things might be bobbing around. Land use is India is similarly messy and mixed, and also creates a vibrant street life where activities are located close to one another and it is easy for someone to find what they need within walking distance. Everything is everywhere, it seems.

Land use zoning in India is Euclidean based, meaning it creates land use classifications (i.e. residential, multi-family, commercial) by geographic area, but instead of keeping those uses separate, land use in Indian cities typically builds off of the uses in one zone to create a more integrated approach. For example, in Chennai, the first land use category, primary residential, allows residential, as well as cottage industries, petty shops, small farms, and schools of commerce. The mixed residential zone allows everything that was allowed in primary residential, as well as banks, restaurants, shops, bakeries, etc.  The commercial land use zone allows everything in primary residential and mixed residential, and then some.  And so it builds.

According to ITDP’s Eight Principles for Transport in Urban Life mixed uses is one component of good urban development.  If India has mixed use down, what, then, is the main issue for zoning in India? For Indian cities, the two biggest issues as represented by the Eight Principles are density and connectivity.

How should we define density in dense environments like Indian cities? The floor area ratio (known as floor space index in India) is usually set at a uniform and low rate across the city.  Indian cities are using transfer of development rights (TDR) to encourage densification in certain areas, but those areas are often at the outskirts of the city center.  Essentially, TDR is being used to not really densify new areas, but to de-densify the crowded centers.  This may be resulting in sprawl and not in focusing growth in strategic ways, like around transit.

Planning typically is done by the state, not the city, and only looks at main arterials.  The smaller streets and the connections within an area are often missing.  So while land use zoning fosters everything everywhere within walking distance, the connections to make that happen – the micro street grid – may be missing, especially in new areas. And given the growth of Indian cities, we want to make sure that the new areas have the vibrancy of the older areas – where the streets are vibrant places in their own right and help us go everywhere – where mixed uses, density, and connectivity create good places where we want to be.

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Transit-Oriented Development in Pimpri Chinchwad

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by C. Ranga Rohini, ITDP India

With an urbanization rate of over 40 percent in the Indian state of Maharashtra, planning authorities and public transport operators face the increased responsibility of providing efficient transport systems while improving the quality of urban life. Pimpri Chinchwad, one of the state’s fastest growing cities, is set to open the first two corridors of a planned 40 km bus rapid transit (BRT) network in early 2014. To ensure that as many residents as possible can benefit from the BRT, the city has begun exploring mechanisms to achieve greater harmony between land use regulations and the emerging mass rapid transit system.

Officials of the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) recognize that there is an urgent need to transform existing urban landscapes from a collection of free-standing structures into a cohesive urban environment centered around high quality public transport. Developing a strong framework to guide future growth is essential to achieving this vision. For this purpose, ITDP partnered with PCMC to orgnaize a one-day workshop on transit-oriented development (TOD). The workshop brought together planners, engineers, and other senior officials with experts from ITDP.

Luc Nadal, ITDP’s Technical Director for Urban Development, presented on the link between urban form and transport mode choices. He emphasized the need to create compact, permeable neighborhoods, citing international examples such as Central Saint Giles Court in London, IJburg in Amsterdam, and Quartier Messana in Paris. Luc also introduced ITDP’s TOD Standard as a tool to assess urban developments located near public transport nodes. For the purpose of the workshop, the ITDP team analysed a 1.2 square kilometre study area centered around three BRT stations in Pimpale Saudagar to identify existing issues and to assess the changes required in the urban fabric to facilitate transit-oriented development.

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Pratibha Bhadane, Senior Town Planner, PCMC, presents a proposal to use parking restrictions within 400 m of BRT stations to spur private “parking markets” outside the BRT influence area.

Participants addressed the following topics in three groups:

– Transit-oriented land use planning at the city level. The group explored mechanisms for aligning job density and infrastructure growth along BRT corridors with projected residential growth. The group also discussed the role of off-street parking reforms and affordable housing as means of promoting the use of public transport.

– The street network and the public realm. Group members identified opportunities to prioritize non-motorized and public transport modes, create an interlinked network of public spaces, and finance these projects through street management mechanisms.

– Built form in the private domain and its interface with the public realm. This involved the identification of preferred building typologies and forms that contribute to the public domain as well as institutional mechanisms to enforce these proposals. Viable financial mechanisms were also developed to route revenue from TOD areas to fund infrastructure improvements in the region.
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Assessing walkability in Pimple Saudagar: poor street connectivity limits the catchment area of the BRT system. The green area represents the actual 5 minute pedestrian catchment area within the ideal 400 m buffer around three stations.

Participants agreed that denser development should be planned in the 400 m catchment areas along BRT and metro corridors in order to ensure that the majority of the 740,000 new residents expected to move to Pimpri Chinchwad over the next decade can find accommodation within walking distance of a mass rapid transit station. Participants also developed strong proposals for parking policies to reduce use of private motorized vehicles and incentives for inclusive development through the provision of smaller, affordable units on the BRT corridors.

In terms of better connectivity to station areas, they agreed on the need to restrict block sizes and create a dense network of high quality, safe walking and cycling streets lined by vibrant commercial and residential edges. Implications of increased density on physical and social infrastructure need to be assessed. In addition, participants identified a need for better financial analysis of development rights systems. There was also consensus among the participants on the need to consolidate existing rules and validate existing assumptions through a pilot project in the region. The workshop marks a milestone in the land use and transport planning for Pimpri Chinchwad and has paved the way for second round of discussions among private developers, resident welfare associations, and other stakeholders in the region.

ITDP India Workshops in Pune and Chennai Focus on Transport Planning through Capacity Building

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by C. Ranga Rohini, ITDP

Indian cities have traditionally been centered around walking and cycling as the primary means of transport. For example, Chennai’s Comprehensive Transportation Study reports that walking and cycling account for almost 34 percent of all trips made in the city. With an increasing number of private vehicles on the road, the demand on road space growing by the day. Although there is an inherent recognition of the need to improve walking and cycling facilities in general, there is little understanding of design measures that could help make streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists.

To address all these issues, ITDP held a series of capacity building workshops in Pune and Chennai from 4 to 8 February. The workshops brought together municipal engineers and officials working in the field together with street design expert Michael King from Nelson Nygaard. The workshops sought to bridge the gap between theory, reaality, and practice.

Mr. King specialises in multimodal transportation for livable communities. By working at the intersection of transportation and urban design, with a particular emphasis on pedestrian safety, bicycle facilities, traffic calming, and street architecture, he endeavours to ensure that streets serve the diverse needs of urban residents—beyond their role as a conduit for motor vehicle traffic.

In each workshop, participants formed groups and went out to visit a given site. The site audits gave participants a chance to examine the grim conditions faced by pedestrians every day. These issues were then addressed through a collaborative design exercise among the members of the group, the key aspects of which were then presented to the other groups to enable cross-learning and debate.

Considering that the city of Chennai has initiated a project to improve footpaths on 71 “bus route roads” in the city, the exercise comes at a crucial time to enable the decision makers and engineers to interact with experts and chart out a way forward. In Chennai, eager participation from local bureaucrats gave an impetus to implement some of the proposals as pilot projects, with Mayor Saidai Duraisamy indicating that all 400-odd main streets within the Corporation limits will be taken up for pedestrian improvements over the next 4 years.

ITDP is in the process of compiling the results of the workshop and preparing implementation plans based on participant drawings. Earlier workshops are beginning to yield results: in the city of Pimpri Chinchwad, officials have initiated the redesign of an intersection that was the subject of a workshop in September 2012. To conclude, in the words of Mr. Vikram Kapur, Commissioner, Corporation of Chennai, “All that is required is a change in mindset and a will to do it.”