Delhi has been suffering from serious problems related
to traffic congestion, pollution as well as road
accidents. There is a need for both serious researches
on these issues as well as work on the developmental
aspects involving closer collaboration among the
Government, academia and industry. With this objective,
IIIT-Delhi, in collaboration with Delhi Knowledge
Development Foundation (DKDF) is establishing a ‘Centre
of Sustainable Mobility’ as a Centre of Excellence at
the Institute.
The new research centre will focus on solving the
problem of urban transportation in Delhi. The problem of
sustainable mobility is a complex problem that requires
design and optimisation, relying on data analytics and
interdisciplinary research that includes computer
science, artificial intelligence, electronics
engineering as well as design. IIIT-Delhi has faculty
members specialising on various research areas across
these disciplines. The institute provides an adequate
infrastructure with world class facilities to aid such
advanced research and learning.
The researchers at IIIT-Delhi have been working with the
Transport department of the GNCTD as well as various
transit agencies like DTC, DIMTS and Delhi Metro over
the last 3 years to create systems like Open Transit
Data, Open Ticketing Framework for contactless ticketing
in buses, depot management tool for the DTC etc. The
faculty of the institute also worked with the World Bank
for Chennai transit agencies as well southern railways
to collect, clean and open transit data.
The Centre of Sustainable Mobility, through its research
focus, will not only enhance public transit, but will
also save lives by preventing road accidents. Road
accidents kill more than 1.5 million people every year
in India and affect more than 1 crore people with
serious injuries every year. The loss of GDP due to road
accidents is estimated to be around 2% only. Many of
these unfortunate outcomes can be reduced by creating a
better transport infrastructure in the county and the
Centre of Sustainable Mobility will strive towards it.
Moreover, sustainable public transit can also play a key
role in decreasing the pollution in Delhi by removing
cars from the roads and enabling people to avail public
transit.
The centre will also open up new avenues and courses for
training students in the field of public transportation,
electric vehicles as well as road safety. There is a
greater need for the new age courses to be connected to
the SDG goals of the UN.
Dr. Pravesh Biyani, the Faculty in charge of the Centre
on Sustainable Mobility has said “[We have been engaging
with DTC, DIMTS and the transport department for 3
years. We have successfully executed the country's
biggest real-time open data project as well as
contactless ticketing project that is now rolled out in
all the buses of Delhi. We hope to take our engagement
to the next level through this centre. We also hope that
technologies we build here are used not only in India
but throughout the world. The main goal of this centre
is to promote public transit as much as we can".
During the announcement of the new Research Centre,
Director, Prof. Ranjan Bose said, “From the perspective
of mobility, we are gradually moving towards an
increasingly connected, autonomous, electrified, and
shared future. The Centre will catalyze research,
development and entrepreneurial activities in the area
of smart/ sustainable mobility, with a focus on
mobility-related problems of Delhi/ NCR. "
