BLOCK LEVEL TRANSPORT NETWORK PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT USING GIS

Abstract

Rural roads plays an important role in the development of country as an estimated 72.2% of the population of India lives in 586,000 villages scattered all over the country. PMGSY, the national level program started on 25th Dec. 2000, is rapidly improving the connectivity status of India. In certain region almost 100% connectivity is achieved. The traffic is also rapidly increasing in the country, even on rural roads. So, by keeping futuristic approach, in order to reduce the congestion and improve the condition of existing roads, there is urgent need of upgradation planning of rural roads. This upgradation planning is the second phase of planning which includes strengthening, widening and providing alternate route. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) represent an information technology composed of hardware, software, and data used to gather, store, edit, display, and analyze geographic information. The process of evaluating increasing volumes of information acquired from different sources lead to the development and the use of recent computer based GIS. A recent advance in the ability to collect accurate locational information in an economical fashion has catapulted GIS into the main stream of development activities associated with database management and integration with the application environment. Since the transportation applications like alignment are based on the geographical features, GIS poses a technology with considerable potential for achieving dramatic gains in efficiency and productivity. The study area is Laksar block, Haridwar district of Uttaranchal, consisting of 115 villages out of which 87 are populated and rest are unpopulated. However the attraction between two villages is directly proportional the score (calculated based on the existing road network, medical and educational facilities) of the villages and inversely proportional to the distance between them, according to which the priority assessment is done. This block level network planning aimed at upgradation and widening of the existing road network and the fund requirement on yearly basis, so as to provide an all weather road network (Bituminous road) by the end of the year 2020. In this thesis emphasis is given to yearly development of road network comprising of upgradation and widening based on priority assessment which is based on the existing facilities mainly educational, medical and road inventory, keeping in view complete road network will be developed by 2021.