Traffic Impact Assessment for Sustainable Development in Urban Areas

Abstract Since long, Traffic Impact assessment (TIA) has been recognized as an integral and mandatory part of Environmental Impact assessment in developed countries. Accordingly, it is mandated that any proposed development expected to generate 100 or more additional / new trips during peak hours should undergo a TIA However, in developing countries like India, TIA has gained importance only during the last decade spearheaded by the need to develop sustainable solutions to the congestion problem. In this paper we discuss the findings of two case studies one being an official complex coming up close in the Central Business District (CBD) area of New Delhi, India and the other being the assessment of the impact due to proposed extension of an Information Technology (IT) Park located at the Special Economic Zone at a distance of 4 Kms from the corporation limits along the eastern periphery of city of Madurai, Tamilnadu, India. The case studies highlight the importance of TIA and bring out the need to make TIA an integral and mandatory requirement in the case of new as well as capacity augmentation.