Hyderabad leads the way for future mobility: Report

Hyderabad: Hyderabad added to its list of laurels by emerging as the leader of future mobility among mega cities, according to OMI Foundation's Ease of Moving Index (EoMI) India Report 2022. It also has the highest adoption of cashless payments for mobility services, according to the report.

The EoMI serves as a tool for policymakers to identify, deliberate and fix mobility challenges in Indian cities. The study covered over 50,000 respondents from 40 cities that account for over 25 per cent of India’s urban population. These cities have better active and shared mobility systems.

Hyderabad scored the highest (0.166) on the future mobility parameter. Chennai scored 0.104 and Bengaluru 0.143 in the mega cities category. Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune-Pimpri Chinchwad, Surat, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, and Kolkata were the other cities in this category.

Future mobility apart, the study also focused on the impetus for active and shared mobility, seamless mobility, towards vision zero, mobility for all, affordable mobility, efficient and reliable mobility, clean mobility, and investment in the city.

Hyderabad also has the highest adoption of cashless payments for different mobility services, the report said.

Digital tools, such as smartphone applications for passenger mobility, apps to streamline parking or charging electric vehicles, fintech solutions for cashless payments, and social media platforms to network and buy services are the innovations revolutionising how cities move, work, and grow, the report stated.

Industries minister K.T. Rama Rao, while participating in the ground-breaking ceremony for the ₹1,000-crore manufacturing unit of Mahindra Last Mile Mobility (LMM), part of Mahindra & Mahindra group, at its plant in Zaheerabad on Monday, said Telangana was committed to developing the right infrastructure and ecosystem for promotion and adoption of electric vehicles. Telangana was one of the early adopters of the focused electric vehicles and energy storage solutions (EV-ESS) policy in 2020 and is set to attract huge investments in the segment in days to come.

The Telangana Mobility Valley (TMV), India’s first new mobility-focused cluster, would make the state a competitive destination for automobile manufacturing, engineering and R&D. Telangana wants to attract ₹50,000 crore investments and generate more than four lakh jobs in the next five years in the segment, Rao had said.

Telangana is developing EV manufacturing clusters in Zaheerabad and Seetharampur, an energy storage system (ESS) cluster at Divitipalle in Mahbubnagar district and an innovation cluster at Yenkathala in Vikarabad district for the purpose.

“Active and shared mobility choices have emerged as one of the key enablers of sustainable mobility, which when paired with technological innovation holds the promise of revolutionising how Indian cities move,” OMI Foundation Trustee Harish Abichandani said in the report.