Tag Archives: transportation

Priyanka Gandhi thanks UP govt for allowing offer of 1,000 buses to ply migrant workers home

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Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi’s offer to ply 1,000 buses to transport stranded labourers and migrants in Delhi to their homes in Uttar Pradesh has been accepted by the UP government after dragging ts feet for over two days. The state Additional Chief Secretary Awanish Awasthi replied to Priyanka Gandhi’s private secretary accepting the offer and requesting more details including a list of the drivers and conductors.

In her May 16 letter soon after the tragic road accident when 25 migrants had died near Aurraiya, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi wrote to CM Yogi Adityanath offering to bear the cost of 1,000 buses to transport migrants to UP. She said thousands of migrants from various parts of the country were walking down to their homes and 65 of them died on the road that was more than the COVID-19 tally in the state.

Priyanka Gandhi offered to provide 1,000 buses to transport migrants and bear the cost by the Congress Party and said 500 buses were being parked at Ghazipur border in Ghaziabad and another 500 buses at Noida. Amid adverse media reports, the UP Government has finally decided to give permission.

Earlier, Priyanka had deplored the poor mismanagement at Ghaziabad’s Ram Lila ground where a large uncontrollable crowd of migrants had gathered and were seen pushing each other, ignoring social distancing norms in the wake of coronavirus pandemic, to register to return home.

“If this exercise had started a month ago the migrants would not have had to undergo such hardship. I had offered 1,000 buses and had parked them at the UP border but the UP Government kept playing politics and did not give permission. The UP Government is not helping those hit by this pandemic and is neither allowing others to do it,” Priyanka had said in her earlier tweet.

After the approval of her request, she said, “The nation-building workers cannot be left like this to fend for themselves. The Congress party is committed to help them,” and thanked the state government for accepting the offer.

Mis-estimating travel time hinders people from walking or cycling to work: Study

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Worries about the extra time needed to walk or bike to work is a big reason why people hop into their cars for work though walking or biking probably wouldn’t take as long as they think, said a study.

When researchers asked 253 faculty and staff and 252 students at Penn State in a study to estimate how long it would take them to bike or walk to a common location in town, they found that the majority of people estimated incorrectly. Most of the participants thought it would take longer than it actually did.

The participants were asked about how often they drove, took the bus, walked or biked to campus; how they felt about active travel; and how physically fit they were. They also answered questions about how long they thought it would take them to walk or bike from their home to campus. Actual travel times were calculated using Google Maps.

After analyzing the data, the researchers found that about 91 percent of faculty and staff incorrectly estimated how long it would take to walk to campus, and about 93 percent misestimated how long it would take to bike.

Students were a little better at estimating travel times — about 55 percent incorrectly estimated walking times and about 43 percent misestimated biking times. Almost everyone who was not accurate overestimated the travel time.

Melissa Bopp, associate professor of kinesiology, Penn State, said the results help the researchers better understand the barriers keeping people from walking or biking. Bopp said they also found several characteristics that could predict if someone was more likely to be "discordant," or likely to estimate travel times incorrectly.

Faculty and staff who thought parking was more available and accessible were more discordant, and women were more likely to be more discordant than men. In contrast, people who rode a bike or walked more often were more likely to accurately predict travel times.

The results are published in Transportmetrica.

Indian Cabinet Approves MOUs with United Arab Emirates

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The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the Memorandum of Understanding between India and United Arab Emirates for cooperation in the field of Small and Medium Enterprises and Innovation. The MoU will benefit Indian SMEs and lead to equitables and inclusive development, said a statement.

The exposure to best practices in SME sector abroad would provide an opportunity to Indian SMEs to improve upon them and innovate further. It would also provide to Indian SME sector an opportunity to have a mutually beneficial relation with SME sector of the United Arab Emirates and to explore their markets.

The Cabinet also approved an MoU with UAE on Institutional Cooperation in Maritime Transport that will pave way for facilitation and promotion of maritime transport, simplification of customs and other formalities, wherever possible, observed in Ports and facilitation of the use of existing installations for the disposal of waste.

The MoU entails Shipping Companies in both countries to enter into bilateral and multi-lateral arrangements for trade. In addition, a pact on bilateral Cooperation in the Road Transport and Highways Sector to be signed between the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, India and the Federal Transport Authority – Land and Maritime, U.A.E. was also approved.

The proposed MoU envisages increased cooperation, exchange and collaboration between India and the UAE, and will contribute to increased investment in infrastructure development and enhance logistics efficiency. This will help in promoting safe, economical, efficient and environmentally sound road transport in the country and will further help both the countries in creating an institutional mechanism for cooperation in the field.