Private varsity in Greater Noida asked to prepare traffic plan

The district magistrate has asked a private university to prepare a plan for traffic management and improvement of public transport in Greater Noida, within three months.

The decision was taken to address concerns regarding traffic congestions at important intersections such as Pari Chowk and in light of the inauguration of the new Noida-Greater Noida metro’s aqua line. The task has been given to Sharda University, which will also be required to provide a detailed action plan for all departments to work on.

“We are seeing increasing traffic pressure in Greater Noida on some stretches while other roads remain empty. We, therefore, need a management plan. Traffic congestion, availability of public transport vehicle and parking spaces are the three major concerns in the city,” BN Singh, district magistrate, said.

He added that the changes would be implemented based on suggestions by the university team. The changes would be rolled out with the help of funds from Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects of companies based in Greater Noida and the administration’s financial resources will not be used for it, he further said.

With the delivery of several residential flats in the past few years and increased connectivity with the launch of the new metro line, the population and traffic pressure is expected to increase in the near future. Sharda University had suggested a three-pronged plan for traffic management in Greater Noida in a meeting with the district magistrate last week.

The university will be using an integrated team of management, architecture and civil engineering students to prepare a comprehensive report. The students will be working under the supervision of their professors and the respective head of departments.

“We have management students who will conduct the preliminary survey and study traffic patterns. Our architecture and planning students will then suggest road design changes, public transport augmentation and other plausible improvements. The civil engineering students will plot how these suggestions can be implemented on the ground,” Sharda University spokesperson, said.

According to the spokesperson, the team would make suggestions on how alternative ‘ghost’ stretches can be made more usable, apart from suggesting changes in infrastructure.

“For example, all institutions in Knowledge Park use one main road as other routesr emain empty. However, these are not adequately lit, remain unsafe and are now almost deserted. We may suggest how they can be transformed to better public spaces that serve more people’s needs,” the spokesperson, said.