Manoranjan Parida_Multimodal Transportation_ProjectsMoniotrDr. Manoranjan Parida, a Professor of Civil Engineering at IIT Roorkee, has lent his expertise in road transport sector for the development of 1,700 km of state highways in Bihar under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana project during the last five years and road infrastructure works for Delhi and other cities in NCR, including maintenance strategy for a road network in Noida.

Dr. Parida, a graduate in civil engineering from University College of Engineering, Burla, Odisha, and a post-graduate in urban planning from School of Planning & Architecture, New Delhi, is an expert on multimodal transportation. He thinks multimodal public transportation is a sustainable alternative to car travel, environment friendly and provides flexible mobility.

“The underlying motivation of all land use and transport initiatives is to enhance the functional competitiveness of multimodal transport as a substitute for mainly car travel in order to optimistically achieve a better modal split in favour of public transport,” Dr. Parida, who got his Ph.D. from University of Roorkee, told Projectmonitor.

On the planning and design of a multimodal transport system, Dr. Parida said that it required multidisciplinary inputs involving physical planners, architects and civil engineers on a common platform. Many IT enabled tools, such as navigation system, transit planner and RFID, could contribute to reducing the friction at the interface of constituent modes of transport.

“The public transport policy is pushing towards a public transport share of more than 75 per cent for large metropolitan cities which can be achieved through the multimodal system only,” he noted.

On the opportunities for young engineers, Dr. Parida said that students could undergo extended internship at a project site for at least four to six months to learn actual construction though field exposure. Moreover, “The infrastructure industry should also provide different kinds of internship opportunities for young engineers, helping in professional skill development of young engineers,” he said.

Dr. Parida is reputed as an excellent teacher. He is Head of the Centre of Excellence for Transport Systems since 2012. He also currently holds the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways Chair Professor position on Development of Highway System. He has published over 285 research papers and articles in national and international journals and conferences. He has supervised nine Ph.D. theses and is currently supervising seven Ph.D. scholars in the areas of traffic safety, multimodal transport and transport environment interaction. He has also completed 11 sponsored research projects and over 300 consultancy projects.

Dr. Parida is a Fellow of Institute of Town Planners, Institution of Engineers, and Life Member of various other professional institutions in India. He is currently also Member of IMRA Committee of Indian Roads Congress. He is the recipient of several medals, prizes and awards.

IIT Roorkee honoured Dr. Manoranjan Parida with Outstanding Teacher Award on Teachers day on September 5, 2013.


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