The Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Shipping and Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, Nitin Gadkari and the British High Commissioner in India, Dominic Asquith witnessing the signing ceremony of an MoU between Ministry of Road Transport & Highways and Transport for London, in New Delhi on January 10, 2018.
Transport for London (TFL), the agency managing the transport system for Greater London will now work to improve and revamp India’s transport architecture.
TFL has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in New Delhi to develop efficient public transport system in the country.
“The country needs a good transport policy that promotes convenient and comfortable public transport system. An effective public transport system would be one that ran on electricity or other less polluting, indigenously produced fuels like methanol, ethanol and bio-diesel. Such a system would not only reduce pollution, but would also be cost effective,” said Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road, Transport Highways, Shipping and Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation.
“To implement reforms in public transport systems in the country, we have to learn from the best practices across the world. The Government has to facilitate the capacity building in public transport with learnings from the experienced and proven public transport agencies like TFL,” he added.
TFL has created a system under Public Private Partnership which has over 17 operators under a single brand. A salient feature has been their double decker buses which provide for high capacity with low road space requirement.
They are known to deploy electric and hybrid buses in a large number. The common mobility card in London was also launched by them.
Under the MoU, TFL will develop infrastructure in such a way that will enable improved customer services, harness from scientific data analysis and implement effective IT systems in the transport sector.
It will also try to increase the use of electric vehicles in public transport and promote digital transaction for ticketing.