Proposal for

National Level Non Motorised Transport Policy

Prepared by
Arshel Akhter
Bicycle Mayor of Guwahati, Assam,
Founder of Pedal for a Change
As Bicycle Mayors we all are working in the area
of improving and increasing the mobility or
movement of people from one place to another
using cycles as the main mode of transport.
Urban Mobility Pyramid

As the upside down Urban

Mobility Pyramid shown
here the most desirable,
efficient and popular
modes of urban mobility
are walking followed by
cycling.

These two modes are called

Non Motorised Transport
or NMT in short.
The requirement of NMT facilities (like good
footpaths and cycling lanes) in cities are
mentioned in such policy document as National
Urban Transport Policy (NUTP) 2014 and NMT
Guidelines have been formulated by Ministry of
Home and Urban Affairs (MoHUA).
NMT facilities are supposed to be an important
facet of a city’s Comprehensive Mobility Plan.

A Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) of any

city presents a strategy for short-, medium-, and
long-term investments to improve accessibility
and mobility for its residents. The CMP will be a
key document to justify and support transport
proposals of the city, to the Central Government
and multilateral funding agencies.
All the above policy documents and guidelines
do not comprehensively cover all facets of
cycling and walking and seems the concerned
beneficiaries were not consulted before being
formulated.
All the Bicycle Mayors are already working
towards promoting cycling and increasing
ridership in their respective cities and this
needs to carried forward.

But there is a sizeable segment of the

population which are still averse to cycling due
to safety concerns – of their own lives, their
loved one’s lives and also their cycles.
One major way these safety concerns can be
addressed is by proper cycling infrastructure –
and this does not only include lanes but also a
lot of other issues.

Local level work to improve NMT facilities are

also happening in some cities but a
comprehensive and national level policy level
push will give the initiatives a bigger impetus.
I have chalked down a few important areas
where the proposed national level NMT policy
needs to focus on.

The growing Bicycle Mayor community can act

as a pressure group to push forward for such
policy level changes.
The actual legal work will obviously have to be
prepared by experts in the field. We can as
concerned people can always put forth our
views.

The focus areas for the proposed National level

NMT policy are as follows
1. Each state must have a NMT policy. The
policy must be incorporated as part of all Urban
Transport Policy.
2. Comprehensive Mobility Plan for each city
should give 50% weightage to NMT facilities.
3. The policy must define flow of funds.
4. Funds should be allocated to provide
financial incentives to people who cycles to
work. Other mechanisms should also be
incorporated for incentives apart from the
financial ones.
5. Commercial organizations should allocate
funds under their CSR activities for promotion
of cycling and cyclists.
6. There should be only one implementing
agency in a state. Other departments or
schemes if they have funds must route it
through the single implementation agency.
7. Public consultation must be made
compulsory. Cyclists to be major stakeholders.
8. Policy must define technical specifications of
cycling lanes, footpaths, road crossings, cycle
parking space, cycle carrying facilities in public
transport.
9. Policy should make it compulsory for all new
government and private residential and
commercial buildings to provide space for cycle
parking. All educational institutions, hospitals,
government offices should have cycle parking
facilities.
10. There must be provisions for public private
partnerships for bicycle sharing systems.
11. Provision of imposing penalty for people
who encroach upon, destroy cycling
infrastructure. Police should be in charge of
implementation this.
12. Time bound implementation guidelines
should be made.
13. E-cycles need to be considered as modes of
transport under NMT
Thank You