comprehensive mobility plan CMP 2019

On August 24, five months after Cubbon Park was made traffic-free, the Horticulture Department said that traffic would be allowed here again. This was despite BBMP passing the traffic-free Cubbon Park proposal on June 30 and the impassioned appeals of citizen groups like Heritage Beku. For years, activists have been striving for a pedestrian-friendly Bengaluru but evidence suggests there is a long way to go. With its ill-equipped infrastructure for pedestrians, Bengaluru has the third-highest number of pedestrian fatalities among the top eight Indian metros. Pedestrian injuries and fatalities also account for the majority of road accidents in the city.…

Can you believe this: A mammoth project such as Namma Metro in Bengaluru has, so far, been built without a broad mobility blueprint for the city in mind? In other words, Phase 1 -- which is already up and running -- and Phase 2 -- which is under construction -- do not integrate either with the existing transportation infrastructure (public bus service, pedestrian infrastructure, cycling infrastructure, cab aggregators and bike taxis) or with developmental plans of other civic agencies (BBMP, BDA, BWSSB etc).  If so, will seamless travel in Bengaluru remain a distant dream? It also begs the question whether…

The draft Comprehensive Mobility Plan for Bengaluru dated October 2019 has been unveiled and opened for inputs from the public. One glance, and you can tell this is Akrama Sakrama for mobility. The document doesn’t hide this fact, mentioning in several places that it is organised to fit in the projects already identified. The tail is wagging this dog. Nevertheless, I took a specific look at the focus on cycling in the document. Among the 10 strategies that the CMP articulates, there was only one mention of the word NMT (non-motorised transport) - in strategy number 3, 'Promote multi-modal mobility…

Last month, the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) released a Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) for Bengaluru. You have till January 5th to send in your suggestions and objections to the plan. Set in three phases, CMP is expected to be implemented between 2020 and 2035. What are the key suggestions and projects in the CMP? It's heartening that pedestrian infrastructure - which had been ignored in previous mobility plans - makes an appearance in this one. But what's most striking is that the elevated corridor project, which the government had shelved after major citizen protests, makes a sudden comeback…