Research world-wide points to the high economic, social, and environmental costs of automobile-oriented urban sprawl and conversely, the benefits of compact, public-transport-oriented cities. Investments in public transport can potentially create thousands of jobs and deliver economic returns 5–7 times the initial outlay. In India, smart urban growth can potentially save up to $1.8 trillion per year by 2050 – about 6% of the country’s GDP. 

The Government of India (GoI) has set out a vision of Viksit Bharat, seeking to turn India into a $30 trillion economy and developed nation by 2047. It also aims to achieve carbon intensity reduction of 45% over 2005 levels by 2030, and net-zero emissions by 2070. Cities and transit-oriented development (TOD) strategies are fundamental to achieving these ambitions. While cities are expected to both accommodate and enable most of this growth, TOD helps decouple density from congestion, and economic growth from resource use and carbon emissions. TOD is a key urban development and climate action strategy, and its holistic adoption offers high dividends for sustainability and competitiveness – a win-win for all stakeholders! 

Since 2010, the WRI India Ross Center for Sustainable Cities (previously EMBARQ India), has been contributing to the discourse and uptake of TOD in the Indian context through the following interventions.   

Plans and Policy Advisory 

  • Inputs into TOD policies, urban development guidelines and regulatory frameworks at national/subnational/levels and city master plans
  • TOD vision and strategic plans at city or corridor scales
  • Safe access and public space improvement plans at the station area or neighbourhood scales 

Knowledge Sharing and Capacity Building   

  • Guidebooks and manuals or toolkits on integration of TOD policies/strategies into scales of plans (regional to local), liveable neighbourhoods and townships, form-based codes, and safe access to mass transit.
  • Research papers and reports on synergising TOD and land value capture potential, enabling jobs densities and assessing TOD potential along transit corridors, managing high densities and parking regulations for station areas.
  • Training modules and capacity building workshops on TOD planning and financing, road safety considerations in TOD projects, stakeholder or community sensitization and engagement workshops. 

Our work on TOD connects to and draws on other allied, practice areas of work. 

Resources

Neighbourhood Improvement and Townships  

Safe Streets, Last-mile Connectivity and Multimodal Integration