Mizoram CM Lalduhoma Reviews ₹414-Crore Aizawl Sustainable Urban Transport Project to Curb Capital Gridlock

Aizawl: The Mizoram state government has officially unveiled a highly anticipated mobility roadmap for the capital city, greenlighting the ₹414.04-crore Aizawl Sustainable Urban Transport Project (ASUTP),on Monday.

The initiative, classified as an Externally Aided Project, is engineered to overhaul the state capital’s constrained public transit layout and dismantle the severe gridlock that plagues the mountain city’s narrow corridors.

The extensive structural blueprint was detailed during a high-level review meeting hosted at the Chief Minister's Conference Hall in Aizawl. Pu Jacob Lalawmpuia, the Director of the Urban Development & Poverty Alleviation (UD&PA) department, delivered a comprehensive PowerPoint presentation laying out the infrastructure timelines, logistics nodes, and funding arrangements worked out in partnership with the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

According to the department's roadmap, Phase-I of this sprawling project is officially set for execution between the financial years 2027–28 and 2030–31.

Chairing the executive review session, Chief Minister Pu Lalduhoma delivered strong guidance to the state planners, focusing heavily on changing public mindset toward mass transit.

"To encourage more people to use public transport, it must be kept clean, well-managed, and operate on a strict, punctual schedule," Chief Minister Lalduhoma emphasized, stating that a reliable transit system is the only path to successfully easing urban congestion.

The Chief Minister strongly backed the UD&PA roadmap, pointing out that its secondary benefits intersect directly with civic well-being. He noted that the project seamlessly ties traffic relief to positive public health outcomes by embedding safer pedestrian walkways, modernized junction geometries, and highly organized parking sectors for commercial fleets.

The multi-crore project targets three highly congested urban traffic zones: Kulikawn–Bawngkawn, Temple Square–Vaivakawn, and Bawngkawn–Ramhlun. Green initiatives are prominently woven into the infrastructure plans, which mandate the construction of modern depot terminals alongside centralized Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations.

To pull commercial traffic out of the dense city center, the ASUTP maps out new regional transport nodes. Combined bus and maxi-cab terminals are planned for Muallungthu, Sihhmui, and Bungbangla, while dedicated heavy truck terminals will be erected at Sihhmui and Bungbangla. Crucially, state planners are broadening the economic utility of these outer terminals by integrating extensive cold-chain storage facilities and wholesale market structures directly into the yards to shore up agricultural logistics.

The review session closed with a strategic mandate regarding regional connectivity. To divert heavy transit away from inner-city arteries, the UD&PA intends to link internal urban roads to the ongoing Aizawl Western Bypass road project via multiple calculated intersection points.

Chief Minister Lalduhoma has also directed planners to quickly design highway layouts outside the primary city limits, noting that advanced mapping is critical before peripheral areas become densely populated and impossibly congested.

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