Hyderabad: The United Nations has said that road accidents cost three per cent loss to the GDP in India, Mr T. Krishna Prasad, DGP, Road Safety Authority said. As many as 7,221 people die in road crashes in the state every year, and it is imperative to consider road safety initiatives such as Station Access and Mobility Programme (STAMP), he said.
The WRI India Ross Centre for Sustainable cities and Toyota Mobility Foundation (TMF) in collaboration with the state government and Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited (HMRL) launched the STAMP Challenge on Saturday, a competition to seek possible innovative solutions to improve first- and last-mile connectivity to metro transit in Hyderabad. Mr Prasad said, “While in other countries it is 80 per cent public transport and the rest being private transport, in India it is vice versa. About 45 per cent of the victims are either pedestrians or two-wheeler riders. The solutions that come from these challenges need to think of such victims with a focus on e-vehicles and speeds”.
He said that there will be encouraging clauses in the Road Safety Authority Act even for start-ups that will work in this area, especially regarding licences.
Experts at the event also emphasised on the need to have solutions that are people-centric.
Ms Kanthi Kannan of the Right to Walk Foundation said, “The first- and last-mile connectivity should consider ACT – Affordability, Comfort and Time. The cost for a person to use Metro Rail and last mile connectivity should be considered.”
She said public transportation like buses are the solution and there is a need to make these affordable. “Motorcycles, cycles are necessary but are they affordable,” Ms Kannan asked.
Mr Malcolm D Wolfe of Roadkraft Society said, “The innovation in connectivity is being talked about in wheels (bikes and cars) but the need is to talk about footpaths and how to make people walk for half a kilometre. It has to go beyond transport towards road to road service.”
HMRL managing director N.V.S. Reddy said Metro Rail was in discussions with Setwin and TSRTC to increase their fleet and it will take time. The STAMP Challenge is open for anyone to apply on the HMRL website to give solutions to address the problem of last mile connectivity.
