Workshop on Leaders in Urban Transport Planning and Management Program

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India and The World Bank, in association with the Centre of Excellence in Urban Transport, CRDF, CEPT University organized the Seventh ‘Leaders in Urban Transport Planning and Management Program’ workshop in Ahmedabad.  The five-day workshop, held from 21-26 Jul, was designed to equip senior and mid-level urban transport professionals with integrated strategic planning and management processes.

The workshop helped develop skills for undertaking urban transport planning and management tasks holistically and comprehensively.

The faculties for this year’s workshop included include Dr. O. P. Agarwal CEO WRI India, Mr M Ramachandran, Former Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development, Dr HUNG Wing- Tat Professor Hong Kong University, Prof Shivanand Swamy, Dr. Shalini Sinha, Dr. Nitika Bhakuni from Centre of Excellence in Urban Transport, CRDF, CEPT University, Dr. Abhijit Lokre and Mr Gautam Patel, visiting faculty CEPT.

Phase 1 of the program involved four-week self-learning followed by a week-long workshop in Ahmedabad. This year 37 participants from 19 cities (New Delhi, Raipur, Shimla, Jammu, Bangalore, Bhopal, Panvel, Pimpri Chinchwad, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Agra, Pune, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Kohima, Jabalpur, Bhopal, Aizawl, Kochi) were in Ahmedabad for the week-long workshop.

The program was inaugurated at the Hutheesing Visual Art Gallery, CEPT on 21st Jul 2019. Mr Suren Vakil, Vice-Chairman, CRDF, CEPT University made the inaugural address Mr I C Sharma, National Project Manager, Sustainable Urban Transport Program, Government of India, was the chief guest on this occasion. During his address, he talked about the benefits of the program and praised CEPT and The World Bank for delivering well thought of modules as part of the workshop.

Ms M Janaki, Deputy Secretary, Government of India, joined the participants on the fifth day of the workshop to review the mentoring projects proposed. She stressed on the need to examine transportation issues holistically and getting into the root cause of the issues.

Mr I P Gautam attended the valedictory session and shared his experiences, concluding remarks and possible solutions to the institutional barriers within large infrastructure projects.

As part of the workshop, participants also visited the SMART City control room at Paldi, BRTS Control Centre and BRTS Ranip Depot to observe and experience the electric buses and the charging infrastructure as well as understand the battery swap technology.

The next phase of the program includes project work to be undertaken by the participants. The project needs to be innovative and implementable; experts in the subject area will be assigned as mentors who will guide the participant for a period of 4 months. This will be followed by an international study visit.