Description

This issue of the Journal features seven articles covering road development projects, sustainable urban development, traditional urban architecture of Lisbon, transportation network participatory mapping, urban infrastructure and planning for sustainatile water resource base.

Dr. K.P Subramanian presents a comparative study of private and public sector urban road projects in Tamil Nadu, on account of the fact that road projects are being implemented both through public and private sectors simultaneously, which provides scope to make a comparative study. The projects analysed are Coimbatore bypass. Alhupalam bridge, Amravathi bridge at Karur, National Highway bypass in Chennal and inner ring road in Madural. Based on an analysis of geometric design elements, project coat, funding pattern, institutional arrangement, land acquisition, toll rates, and sensitivity analysis, the author concludes that both public and private sector projects have positive and negative impacts and as such the Build and Transfer (BT) Technique may be the most appropriate one for taking up these kind of projects.

Prof. R.C. Gupta, highlights Urban Development Planning Issues relating to sustainability of cities and discusses a variety of contributing factors. He advocates an integrated area approach synthesising area based and settlement based strategies with focus on optimal resource utilisation, environmental conservation and balanced settlement pattern to achieve sustainability in development planning

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