Shreya Gadepalli: Demystifying Urban Transportation

Shreya Gadepalli is a sustainable urban mobility expert with over two decades of real world experience. She currently leads the South Asia Programme of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), a global non-profit organization that works with cities to bring about sustainable transport solutions. She has worked extensively on bus-based transport systems, the design of non-motorised transport facilities, parking management, and transit-oriented development. Shreya is an active contributor to national and state policies and guidelines.


In this podcast, Shreya Gadepalli takes the listeners on a journey of urban transport in India. She highlights the issues that impede sensible urban transport planning in Indian cities and talks about how the present car-oriented transport planning paradigm is failing them. She goes on to make a case for re imagining urban mobility in India through three key steps: developing inclusive public transport, creating a safe environment for walking and cycling, and reforming parking.

Planning in India

Over the last seven decades, planners in India have tried different approaches and adopted various methods to plan the Indian cities. From the early days of centralised Master planning to current emphasis on local town planning schemes, they embraced different tools. The state has put in place ambitious renewal schemes and smart city missions. However, questions, such as how to make planning mechanisms work for India persists as solutions either appear elusive or fall short of their objectives.

This podcast series, titled Urban Planning in India, is a reflection on the urban story so far. Hosted by the Centre for Research on Architecture and Urbanism (CAU) and the Centre for Urban Planning and Policy (CUPP) at CEPT University, it offers a rich collection of conversations and audio essays. Eminent thinkers, practitioners, public decision-makers and policy advocates recall and reflect, discuss critical issues and point out the way forward. The episodes are of two categories, one that engages with larger and fundamental issues of urban planning and policy and the other that looks at them through the stories of specific city experiences.

Motivated by the excellent reception of a similar attempt on architecture, the centres have put together the podcast series that will benefit students, serve as resource materials for teaching, work as useful analysis to practitioners and support research as archival material.

• No. of episodes: 15
• Latest episode: 2020-08-12
• Education

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