A senior Telangana government official on Friday urged the IT industry / ITeS to work with the government to promote the use of public transport, as reducing reliance on private vehicles is the way forward.

As the government remains focused on infrastructure development and during the lockdown, has accelerated many projects, especially new roads, the growing share of public transport was important for Hyderabad and its ecosystem against a backdrop of rapid growth, said the Special Chief Secretary of Municipal Administration and Department of Urban Development Arvind Kumar.

Noting that one of the criteria for determining the degree of development of a city is the percentage of people using public transport, Mr. Kumar, speaking at the 2021 Infrastructure Summit, hosted by Hyderabad Software Enterprises Association (HYSEA) said that in some European cities it is 75%. In Mumbai it is around 66%, Delhi 50% and Hyderabad 33%.

Reducing reliance on private vehicles and fostering a gradual shift to public transport is an area of ​​work in which industry can collaborate with government. In doing so, the focus should also be on measures to improve last mile connectivity and increase the share of electric vehicles, especially electric buses.

For its part, the state government had unveiled a policy to encourage the development of integrated townships, beyond the outer ring road, through an incentive program on plots of more than 100 acres. Encompassing the whole, the cantons aim to encourage the concept of walking to work. Two developers have since expressed interest in promoting such townships, including one on 480 acres. Kokapet, on the outskirts, was one of the locations of a new township and in the future, “we expect about a million people to operate from there.”

Energy Department Special Chief Secretary Sunil Sharma told the HYSEA summit, which focused on smart mobility, energy and the workplace, that the state is comfortably placed on the front lines of the energy and spared from the energy crisis triggered by a recent coal shortage. The government is committed to encouraging the production of renewable energy, in particular solar energy. The share of renewable energy at 4,445 MW in the installed electrical capacity of 17,250 MW in Telangana is one of the highest in the country.

Mahindra Electric Mobility CEO Suman Mishra called on the IT industry to increase the design capabilities of on-board systems and power electronics as it would help build better electric vehicles. HYSEA Chairman Bharani Aroll said a memorandum of understanding with the government to promote the use of green energy and reduce the carbon footprint was on the anvil. A CBRE white paper “The Next Normal: Re-imagining Hyderabad’s Real Estate” was released at the summit.