Transport department Delhi signed an MoU with the ‘Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Mobility’ at IIIT-Delhi

New Delhi : Transport department, Govt. of NCT of Delhi signed an MoU with the ‘Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Mobility (CSM)’ at the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi (IIIT-Delhi), established in collaboration with Delhi Knowledge Development Foundation (DKDF), today.

The research centre focuses on solving the problem of urban transportation in Delhi.

 The intent of this MoU is to develop a cooperative and collaborative working relationship between the research centre and the transport department.

To define a technology roadmap towards solving problems of urban mobility in Delhi

  • Identify the right technical solution to achieve the goals of the roadmap and development of pilot technological solutions based on the research carried out at CSM.
  • Assist in identifying and incubating new and innovative solutions though start ups in the transportation sector.
  • Train Transport Department staff in technological capacity building and skill enhancement.

Speaking on the occasion Commissioner of Transport and Principal Secretary of Govt. of Delhi – Shri Ashish Kundra said: “In the last year and half we have collaborated with many academic institutions to come up with smart technology solutions for the problems including road safety etc. This collaboration with IIITD and the MoU is towards leveraging IT, Big data and AI towards solving transportation problems in Delhi/NCR, for instance towards making transit safer for women riders and even problems connected to air pollution and its mitigation.

During the inauguration of the Research Centre, Director, Prof. Ranjan Bose said, “From the perspective of mobility, we are gradually moving towards an increasingly connected, autonomous, electrified, and shared future. The Centre will catalyze research, development and entrepreneurial activities in the area of smart/ sustainable mobility, with a focus on addressing mobility-related problems of Delhi/ NCR. The work carried out in this Center, like the contactless ticketing project, will help improve the ease of living for the common citizens of Delhi.”

The researchers at IIIT-Delhi have been working with the Transport department of the GNCTD as well as various transit agencies like DTC, DIMTS, and Delhi Metro over the last three years to create systems like Open Transit Data, Open Ticketing Framework for contactless ticketing in buses, depot management tool for the DTC, etc. The faculty of the Institute also worked with the World Bank for Chennai transit agencies and southern railways to collect, clean, and open transit data.

Speaking on the occasion Dr. Pravesh Biyani, Head of the Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Mobility and Faculty at IIIT-Delhi further added “The problem of sustainable mobility is a complex problem that requires design and optimization, relying on data analytics and interdisciplinary research that includes computer science, artificial intelligence, electronics engineering, and design. IIIT-Delhi has faculty members specializing in various research areas across these disciplines. The Institute provides an adequate infrastructure with world-class facilities to aid such advanced research and learning”