PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT OF ROAD SYSTEMS FOR METROPOLITAN AREAS.

Growing of urban centres in metropolitan cities in India is a continuing process. Growth of population and motor vehicles, coupled with socio-economic development, are resulting in quite steep increase in transport demand. We have been progressively going into the requirement of Master Plans for our cities. There is a need to maintain a dynamic linkage between the general Master Plans and the Transport Development Plans. The Paper briefly goes over the related conditions in the Metropolitan cities of Calcutta, Delhi, Madras, Bombay and Bangalore. In the light of the recent data available on the Bombay Metropolitan Region, the exercises for phased transport development of this region have been cited as an example. The Paper also discusses the special road engineering aspects involved in metropolitan areas as well as the implementation aspects.