NEW DELHI: The Unified Metro Transport Authorities will soon be set up in mega cities with a population of more than a million for implementing urban transport programmes and projects.

This was announced by the Urban Development Secretary M Ramachandran here on Monday at the inaugural day of Institute of Urban Transport (IUT) Conference on "Sustainable Urban Transport".

"The present land use and transport policies in India have led to the excessive use of the personalised modes of transportation that causes congestion, air pollution and noise," he said.

Terming the Urban Transport as "bloodstream" of the cities, Anwarul Hoda, Member of Planning Commission, stressed on the need of including private parties in the sustainable development of urban transport.

"Increasing traffic jams, increasing road accidents, and air pollution level are the few challenging problems in the urban cities," Dr P S Rana, Patron, IUT said.

The conference has been organised by IUT in collaboration with Association of Intelligent Transport System (AITS) and support of the Ministry of Urban Development (MOUD) to discuss various aspects and options to identify sustainable urban transport.

The three-day conference will also discuss the progress of ongoing urban transport projects under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

Source : PTI