Welcome Speech
Mr. Amitabh Bajpai, President AITS and Chairman AP Forum, ITS Presidents, dear delegates from across Asia-Pacific and World, and members of the Association of Intelligent Transport systems and friends.
First of all let me offer my apologies to each of those present here for being late. I hope you had received my message from the Parliament; I had sent a message that it may not be possible for me to come at all.
I don't know how many of you have been told by Mr. Amitabh, that apart from the Ministry of Urban Development, I am first the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, then Urban Development Minister. So when the Parliament is in Session then everything comes last, Parliament comes first and I have to forget to sleep and my family!
And today, in the Parliament there was an adjournment motion, and a vote of no confidence was moved against the Government. So after the discussion there is a voting, and if you fail in the voting the Government has to go. So you can imagine how important this particular discussion of parliament was today. And I was like to apologies to all once again.
First of all let me thank the organizers for having invited me to this function and I am delighted to be here among you today. .
I feel at this juncture the choice of India as venue for the Conference on use of IT in transport system is most appropriate.
We are not only facing serious problems in addressing the growing travel demands in ours cities and but we are also at the forefront of IT capabilities globally. At least this is one of the areas where we have attracted the attention of the whole globe right from the President of United States, the Prime Minister of Japan and U.K. and a host of other heads of States and Governments across the world.
Therefore, we should effectively harness our IT capabilities to deal with our urban transport links. Like all other development countries, Indian cities are also witnessing the rapid growth in private demand.
We have far more vehicles on our roads then ever before, thanks to globalization and so many others related things. This is not only choking our roads but also creating serious health and safety hazards.
To address these problems, the Ministry of Urban Development has proposed a National Urban Transport Policy.
This will be the first time that an Urban Transport Policy will be in place in India that lays emphasis on improving public transport and increasing non-motorized modes of travel.
We have stressed on the need for integrated land use and transport plan and the development of cleaner fuel and vehicle technology. Obviously, we want to make optimum use of our infrastructure and other resources.
If the policy has not specifically dealt with IT, it is only because we presume that IT will be automatically used for efficient management and delivery of transportation systems.
In the context of urban transport there are several areas where IT should prove useful and therefore needs to be fully exploited. I think managers of ITS and as well as transport department officials needs to work closely with the IT industries and facilitate an IT enabled transport system.
I would like to suggest areas for consideration and discussion. First of all, ITS can be used as a very effective tool to optimize the functioning of public transport.
ITS can help in ascertaining the usage better for public transport and help the management to design services for commuters. Similarly, a whole range of data regarding operation and plans can be collected efficiently for better decision making by the management and more optimum use of the available resources.
Public Transport is in multimodal form, often with many operators in the field. Yet, people want to use a seamless public transport system without the hassles of buying ticket every time, they shift from one bus to another or from a train to the bus. They want to be able to do so without any delays or without inconvenience.
Unless such facilities are provided they will not be attracted to public transport and prefer to drive on personal motor vehicles.
Safety is big concern in the urban transport area. Accurate information on traffic violations could help in enabling management to cancel or suspend driver licenses of perpetual offenders.
Such capability can also help the driver to with more safety on the roads. ITS has been used as mean to warn the people initially about the congestion on a particular section of the road so they can take alternate parts to reach their destination. This can help ease the crowding and reduce emission from vehicles caught in traffic jams.
ITS is also being used for efficient operation on taxi services and allows taxis to be called from the nearest point in shortest possible time. It can allow people to comfortably pool their vehicles for the morning and evening trips to and fro from work thus reducing the use of personal motor vehicles.
Internet based packages that have commuters identifying other commuters who have similar travel patterns helps in cutting down motor vehicle use.
Similarly, I am sure, there are many other areas where IT can be useful in improving urban transport.
I am sure that this conference will debate and present various possibilities. My friend has just now mentioned about the use of IT in urban renewal mission which we will definitely take into consideration while finalizing our report.
I do hope that we India will take advantage of these possibilities and gain from them.
With these few words let me wish the Conference all success.
I will be happy to take a look at the recommendations and suggestions of this Conference.
Once again, I thank you for giving me this opportunity and I am sure that you all will be comfortable during your stay. I am conscious of the fact that you must be all hungry. I know the bad habits, which we have in our country. When I go across the world and when they offer us dinner at 7'o clock, I ask them whether this is lunch or dinner, because here we take lunch at 7'o clock and dinner after 12'o clock! So sometimes our dinner is taken as breakfast. Particularly in parties like marriages and other functions, dinner can start at 4'o clock or 5'o clock in the morning. So you have dinner and breakfast together! So I am sorry to keep you waiting.
Thank you once again and wish you all the best.