Urban Sprawl and Transport Sustainability on Highway Corridors Using Stake Holder Analysis

Abstract

The effects of overpopulation in India in the form of an increased pressure on infrastructure and land is well visible in the form of an exponentially increasing population migration in suburb areas and mushrooming of residential townships along highway corridors. The sustainability of this practice calls for an urgent exposition—although its nature is still exploratory, the challenges faced are crucial. This paper proposes a study relating the effect of overpopulation on the acquisition of land in and around the highways and the effect of this practice on the transportation sector. The paper employs a case study of the Mumbai-Pune Expressway to analyse the trickledown effect of overpopulation on the transport sustainability of the corridor. The failure of traffic management system in the corridor has been attributed to multiple reasons ranging from insufficient government funds, to repair and maintenance work, to inefficient traffic management infrastructure, but what has largely remained unspoken of is the explosion of population migration to the suburbs around the corridor, which is also a major potential reason for the unsustainable traffic flow along the corridor, with the corridor now facing a twin burden—that of inter-city trips as well as that of local trips originating from the growing residential blocks along the corridor. This hitherto ignored aspect behind the unsustainable transport flow along the corridor needs a further exploration. The chapter would also discuss strategic measures which could be used to address the challenge faced by commuters and enhance traffic management systems. Stakeholder analysis and financial trends to extrapolate density pressure on roads would be accounted for in the analysis.