Urbanisation: A Growing Story in Context of Efficient Urban Mobility and Urban Transport

Urbanisation in the Indian landscape has primarily been a post-independence development and has been gaining momentum steadily over the decades.According to the Census of India 2011, around 31% of Indian population lives in urban areas and this number is estimated to reach 40% by 2031. However, with the sheer scale of urbanisation comes the spiralling pressure of swelling urban population on services which causes some externalities, the most burgeoning being the „transport externality‟.Through its „Smart Cities Mission‟, India aims to alleviatethese negative externality imposed by growing urban population in the form of traffic congestion and environmental pollution.The present study aims to assess residents‟ satisfaction across multiple components of the transportation system in Chandigarh.The analysis delves into the problem of traffic congestion and demand for urban mobility vis-à-vis the affordability and accessibility to urban public transport. The results show that various measures must be adopted to moderate the damaging outcomes of the incessant and indiscriminate escalation of the menace of the crowding traffic. A lot still needs to be done in the area of urban mobility to make Chandigarh smart and sustainable.