Urban Affairs Ministry launches 'Transport 4 All Challenge' Stage-2, Citizen Perception Survey-2022

Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri launched the "Transport 4 All Challenge" Stage-2 and Citizen Perception Survey 2022 on Wednesday.

The launch was made at an event attended by senior officials of the Ministry, officers of the Central, State and City Governments as well as key officials from partner organizations and other stakeholders. The participants were apprised of the Challenge process and the modalities of the Citizen Perception Survey with presentations made by partner organizations.

The "Transport 4 All Challenge" is an initiative of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs that aims at enhancing the mobility experience of citizens. The Challenge focuses on digital innovation and invites cities, citizens, and innovators to join hands to develop contextual digital solutions to improve formal as well as informal public transport to better serve the mobility needs of all citizens.

According to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, the three stages of the challenge include Problem Identification: Cities, with the support of NGOs, identify key recurring problems that citizens and public transport operators face; Solution Generation: Startups develop prototypes of solutions to improve public transport with inputs from cities and NGOs; and Pilot Testing: Cities engage Startups for large-scale pilots and refine the solutions based on citizen feedback.

Solutions developed as part of the Challenge aim to integrate formal and informal modes of public transport wherever possible and desirable. Solutions that demonstrate the ability to meet the needs of citizens--those living in cities with different contexts--would be piloted in selected cities across the country. More than 130 cities signed up for Stage 1 of the Challenge, which was launched on April 15, 2021. 100 cities formed a Transport 4 All Task Force (TTF) with key government stakeholders and governments working in the transport sector, along with academic institutes, non-profit organizations, and IPT unions, said the Ministry statement.

These cities successfully conducted surveys with more than 2 lakh citizens, 15,000 bus drivers and conductors and 22,000 informal public transport (autos etc) drivers-- making it the biggest public transport data exercise in the country. The 46 cities--that qualify for Stage 2 of the Challenge--used the survey's findings to develop more than 165 problem statements, that is now curated into a final list of 8 problem statements by the Challenge team.

Stage-2 of the Challenge is open for startups to develop solutions for the issues and problems identified by the cities. Interested startups can register with their idea pitches on the Startup India portal. The Transport 4 All Challenge is organized in partnership with The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) as co-host and challenge coordinator, the Word Bank as knowledge partner, Startup India and City Innovation Exchange as technology partners, and the Association of State Road Transport Undertaking (ASRTU) as city-engagement partner.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs launched the Urban Outcomes Framework 2022 in April, 2022 as an initiative to undertake a transparent and comprehensive assessment of cities based on cross-city outcomes across major sectors. The Framework also includes the third round of Ease of Living Index. The Ease of Living Index, as a 360-degree assessment, aims to evaluate cities across India based on the Quality of Life, Economic Ability, and Sustainability.

As part of the Ease of Living Index, a Citizen Perception Survey is being conducted (which carries 30 per cent of the marks under the Ease of Living Index). This is a very important component of the assessment exercise as it will help in directly capturing citizen feedback with respect to their city's liveability. These views would highlight how citizens feel about different aspects of their cities including public transport, education facilities, healthcare services, water availability, cost of living, employment opportunities, among others.

This survey, which is being administered both online and offline, commenced on November 9 2022 and will continue till December 23, 2022. The offline version involving face-to-face interviews will run parallel with the online survey. The Citizen Perception Survey was first conducted in 2020 and had a target of 16 lakh responses while we were able to garner a response from over 32 lakh citizens residing across the 111 cities participating in the survey. This year, the Survey will be carried out across 264 cities with an aim to capture and reflect opinions of from more than 21 lakh citizens across the length and breadth of the country.

( With inputs from ANI )