An Explainer: Transit-Oriented Development
India has witnessed urbanisation at a tremendous pace in past few decades. With cities growing fast in terms of economy as well as population, one of the biggest challenges these cities have faced is congestion.
Now that India gears up to welcome 100 Smart Cities, Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) has emerged as one of the key planning tools across proposals. Transit-Oriented Development is a planning tool that is implemented across cities to decongest the areas.
With Transit-Oriented Development the infrastructural and real estate development is concentrated near mass-transit systems thus, promoting ridership and bringing down the use of personal vehicles. Mass-transit systems include Metro rail, and smart bus transport systems coupled with walkable neighbourhoods and even cycle networks. This has two positives for cities. First, it decongests roads and second, it brings down the pollution levels of a city.
Some of the latest examples of Transit-Oriented Development programmes in India include-