Devilal Gajendra Pimple

UT4051

Ahmedabad has a variety of public transport initiatives including the AJL - Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) and newly built GMRCL – Ahmedabad Metro Rail (MRTS) which aims to improve the connecting to important locations, reduce traffic congestion and promoting sustainable development in the urban environment. Transit Oriented Development (TOD) is one of the most important planning strategies to ensure that metro stations are developed as hubs of high-density, mixed-use development, improved diversity of built products, and objectives to shift behaviour of citizens towards public transport users and a reduced reliance on privately owned vehicles. While equity of accessibility and inclusion remained an intention of the planning, it is unknown how much equity of access and inclusion Ahmedabad's Metro can achieve. It is critical to ensure that metro stations and their surrounding areas can be accessed safely and easily by diverse user groups including women, children, older adults and persons with disabilities contributing to the equitable urban transport system. Sorting through to determine the role of various factors is warranted, including mixed-land-use (or land-use diversity); the presence of pedestrian infrastructure with wayfinding signage; multimodal connections (MRTS, BRTS, AMTS, etc.); affordability of use; and ultimately how these impact the metro's ridership and operational performance.