The Transit Oriented Development Framework for Indian Cities is a study undertaken by the National Institute of Urban Affairs, New Delhi with funding support from the Prosperity Fund, Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Government of United Kingdom. This study will develop a framework on principles of i) integration of land-use and transportation, ii) sustainable neighbourhood development and iii) inclusion of economic, social and gender needs within land-use and housing mix. The goals of this study are to:
This research aims to achieve its objectives through the following deliverables:
The research traces the evolution of Transit Oriented Development globally, in UK and more recent implementations in Indian cities, along with the impacts. Its purpose is to:
This website provides additional resources such as video interviews with Municipal Commissioners from Indian Smart Cities implementing TOD, datasheets for the case studies and links to other TOD resources. This section of the website has been structured as follows:
Capturing the urban complexities in cities can be an unending and possibly futile pursuit. Cities in India have undergone a rapid transformation in the last decade. Most of the Tier I, II and III cities, incentivised by JnNURM mandates, are for the first time developing their City Development Plans and Comprehensive Mobility Plans, the two dealing with perspective planning and transportation respectively. The understanding of the implications and data gathering to monitor the plans is still evolving due to a lack of concurrency of data relating to housing and transportation. Moreover, even mega-cities such as Mumbai and New Delhi are only in their second or third development plan formulation or implementation. So while this study comes at a time of increased public transportation investments in Indian cities and coincides with formulation of the cities’ development plans in many cases; it is based on a rather short horizon of understanding urban complexities. Coincidentally, the market reform process of 1990s coincides with many of the city development plans being taken up. While market forces undoubtedly, have till now and continue to shape the nature of Indian cities (similar to global cities), the interrelationships are too complex to capture in this study.
This website is aimed to equip the reader with an understanding of global best practices in TOD, identify gaps in the selected Indian cities and make recommendations to overcome these gaps. It is not a policy document, instead, as a framework it aims to support the development and operationalisation of TOD Projects as part of a city wide strategic planning approach under the umbrella of the Indian Smart Cities Mission.
Despite the limitations, it aspires to open up to the reader, the richness of Transit Oriented Development. The various case studies signify variations in TOD; the variations occur across mode of transit, geographic scale of TOD and the type of approach to include the various constructs (described in part II). Given that cities, even in the same country, differ considerably in their urban evolution, this website should be used to as a quick reference for building upon the best practices rather than a comprehensive evaluation of the transit and land-use dialogue.
A deeper understanding will not overwhelm the decision makers in Indian cities, on the contrary it will help streamline the planning processes in their TOD journey. While going through this website, the readers will identify similar existing conditions and the roadblocks to achieve TOD success in their cities - thereby enabling them to recognise the complexities of TOD, break them down into incremental constructs, jumpstart the implementation and finally scale the achievements.
India’s rapid economic development, especially since the 1990s is intrinsically related to its urbanisation process. The structural changes taking place in the economy and related to poverty alleviation are both outcomes and accelerators of this urbanisation. This process has generated positive benefits for India’s gross domestic product and jobs for the young demographic dividend. Today, Indian cities generate two-thirds of India’s GDP, 90% of tax revenues, and the majority of jobs, with just one-third of the country’s population (New Climate Economy, 2014). It is projected that by 2030, while the urban population of India shall grow to 40.76%, the share of GDP contributed by urban areas shall touch approximately 70% (NHB, 2013). However, gaps remain in the overall quality of life for the urban residents.
Dispersal as a form of decentralisation lies at the heart of patterns of development that are environmentally, socially and economically unsustainable. Rapid expansion of cities is inevitable given the speedy urbanisation that accompanies the exponential growth of population and rising incomes. However, planning mechanisms that have led to single-use low density development with disparity in the job-housing ratio are primarily to blame for the ill effects of sprawl. Transit Oriented Development or TOD encourages compact urban growth that helps to reap the economic benefits of urbanisation and enhances socio-economic productivity by improving resource efficiency and quality of life. It is therefore imperative to focus on development of dense, socially-mixed neighbourhoods in cities. Such areas promote human-scale urban environments complemented by healthy public green spaces, vibrant markets, and a range of affordable housing and public transportation options to maintain liveability.
This section presents case studies of Transit Oriented Development in 10 cities from across the world. They represent various modes of public transit and different appraoches to development. While some cases illustrate success as a result of deliberate planning and long strategic growth management, others showcase incidental success resulting from juxtaposition of high quality transit, mix of land use and high population density. The section specifically looks at cases from UK, highlighting their successful station area development.
Indian cities are developing at a rapid pace with the support of various national level schemes and missions. There is a clear shift towards an integrated approach and strategic planning. This is particularly evident in India’s Smart Cities Mission which is focused on stimulating development and investments in Indian cities. This part looks at the mission and the potential for TOD in these and other cities. The first part discussess the TOD projects from the Smart City Proposals of cities selected in the 1st year of the mission. The second section presents some estimates of economic potential generated by TOD around all the metro projects in the country along with a discussion on development potential of railway and bus systems. Institutional factors and service level benchmarks at the city level are also discussed in this part.