Four cities, five days, 21 meetings: Kaan Yildizgoz and Rupa Nandy tour India growing our UITP presence

What do you need to do to follow a hugely successful UITP membership tour of Australia?

Pack a new suitcase and jump straight back out on to the road for a new tour…this time of India!

Following on from our three city, five day tour of Australia in October last year where our Senior Director of Global Growth Dr. Kaan Yildizgoz, and our Head of Membership Sebastien Desmet held 28 meetings with members, stakeholders and partners, there’s a new roadmap to be discovered to keep growing our international presence.

This time with our Head of India Rupa Nandy, Kaan set off with a packed agenda to meet, engage, discuss and promote the work of UITP in the region with all of those most interested in advancing the sustainable urban mobility agenda.

But before we recap an eventful tour, first a little bit of a backstory…

The UITP roots go back a long way in India, where our first office opened in Bangalore in 2007, following that with another base in New Delhi in December 2019.

The prime objective of the Indian offices is to better address the specific needs of regional members, as well as the Indian public transport sector and its stakeholders.

The UITP team in India are always hard at work, with years of excellent research behind them, they have issued many new publications and hosted several events in the last two years alone.

We can always best serve our members and partners at the local level, with our India offices giving assistance and services to public transport organisations in the country through access to knowledge on national and international technical and policy developments in urban mobility, peer reviews, projects and studies on specific issues of concern.

With more than 50 members in India, you can see why our offices provide such an important role to membership retention and growth in the country.

India is a growing market in terms of expanding its public transport fleet owing to its commitments at the global level to reduce carbon emissions and reduce vehicular pollution in its cities.

The government there is strongly committed to decarbonising public transport in the country by 2030 and the UITP India office has been actively working on research projects with State Transport Undertakings (STUs) in some of the leading cities in electrification of buses in India.

Electric bus deployment in India is growing rapidly with the tender for 50000 e-buses in just a few years and the first batch of 10000 e-bus tender as the largest single batch tender happened this year.

Delhi Metro now has solar powered panels on each metro station to power their metros and in Kochi they are launching the new water metro which will operate with the fleet of 78 electric boats across 16 routes. Public transport is always advancing in India!

So to best serve our members needs, and hopefully add to their growing number, Kaan and Rupa set off on their national tour this month…

Plus, for an added bonus, it was also the first time Kaan was visiting the country after taking on his new role as Senior Director Global Growth – what a perfect opportunity!

Across four major Indian cities, Kaan and Rupa held a series of important meetings in Kochi, Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi with many existing UITP members, stakeholders and partners, as well as crucial engagement with non-members. Interested in a quick schedule recap? Then you’re in luck! 

• Kochi: Kochi Metro Rail Ltd (KMRL), Kochi Water Metro Ltd (KWML), Kochi Metropolitan Transport Authority (KMTA), Kleen Smart Bus Services Ltd(KSBL)
• Bangalore: Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL), Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), Department of Urban Land Transport (DULT), Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC)
• Mumbai: Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking, Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC), Greencell Mobility
• Delhi: Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC), Bus and Car Operators Confederation of India (BOCI), Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation (SSEF), Association of State Road Transport Undertakings (ASRTU), TATA Motors, Delhi Integrated Multimodal Transit System Ltd (DIMTS), Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), National Institute for Transforming India(NITI) Aayog

Within these meetings, many key points were raised on what the members are looking to focus on, what UITP can advance on their behalf, and what public transport topics are at the forefront of the agenda in India.

The main talking points and points of interest included: 

• Poor Financial condition
• Digitalisation
• Non-fare box revenue options for metros and buses
• Developing indigenous technology for metro
• Automated metro trains/Driverless metro
• Transit Oriented Developments
• Guidance on new rail technologies from global experts
• Multi-level bus parking designs
• Efficiency and sustainability in buses
• Workforce Challenges
• Zero Emission Buses
• Capacity building

With an impressive agenda full of important meetings, and a non-stop tour of four major Indian cities, Kaan and Rupa’s time was very well spent.

UITP is committed to growing our presence across the globe, and India is a key location in these plans.

Stay tuned for more on our Global Growth journey around the world! 

Learn more about UITP in India

Take a look at Kaan’s social media thread documenting the tour!