Ahmedabad: Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel on Monday urged delegates of various countries associated with sustainable transport, to come up with ideas that make use of solar power in running public transportation.
Patel was speaking at the inauguration of United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) Regional Expert Group on Sustainable and Inclusive Transport Development as well as the Second Asia Bus Rapid Transport System (BRTS) conference on Monday.
Around 100 delegates and experts from 24 countries would share their knowledge and ideas at this two-day conference, an official release said. She said the urban sector's contribution to the total GDP of the country would reach 75 per cent by 2030 due to which urbanisation should be considered as an opportunity, and not as a challenge, according to the release.
During her speech, Patel stressed on the need to make public transport more energy-efficient and asked experts to deliberate on how solar energy could be put to use for public transportation, since India is blessed with ample solar energy, the release said.
Putting emphasis on multi-modal transport system, Patel claimed that this system is the only answer to the ever- increasing urbanisation. She said the multi-modal transport system is the key to solve transport problems of millions of urban dwellers.
Patel said that Gujarat has created the Multi-modal Affordable Transport Authority (MATA), to help various transport systems "synergise" with each other rather than "compete" with each other. She hoped that MATA would create a safe, affordable and trustworthy public transport system for the people, it said.
She said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had already seen it coming and floated the concept of twin-cities, smart cities and port-cities when he was Gujarat CM, it said.
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