作者: S. Velmurugan

Dr. Shriniwas S. Arkatkar is currently working as an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at SVNIT Surat. Prior to joining SVNIT Surat, he has worked in the Department of Civil Engineering at BITS Pilani, Rajasthan. He has more than 10 years of experience in teaching, research, and consultancy in the field of traffic and transportation engineering. He obtained his Ph.D. from the Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Madras. He completed his bachelors in Civil Engineering in 1999 and masters in the area of Urban Planning in 2001, from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), Nagpur, India. Dr. Arkatkar has published more than 120 research papers in journals and conference proceedings. He has hosted a special issue as Guest Editor in Transportation Letters; The International Journal of Transportation Research. He has experience in diverse fields of transportation. They include: traffic flow modelling, traffic safety, intelligent transportation systems (ITS), transportation planning, traffic operations, and traffic simulation applications. He is actively involved as Executive Secretary, Transportation Research Group of India (TRG) and as member of SIGs of WCTRS, Indian Roads Congress (IRC), Governing Council member in the Institute of Urban Transport (IUT), Mo UD.  Dr. S. Velmurugan is working as a Chief Scientist at CSIR – Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), New Delhi and is also the Former Head of the Traffic Engineering and Safety (TES) Division of CSIR-CRRI. He has completed his Ph.D. in Transportation Systems Engineering at IIT, Bombay in March, 1995 and he has also pursued two post-doctoral stints at the University of Antwerp, Belgium and the University of South Australia, Adelaide. He has served in the capacity of Team Leader in the World Bank sponsored projects as well as National Highways Authority of India and various state Public Works Departments (PWD) for the conduct of Road Safety Audits spanning over 4500 kms which include Urban Expressways, National Highways, State Highways, Major District Roads and Urban Roads. He has published more than 100 technical papers in international and national journals and presented several research papers in various scientific forums. He is the recipient of Outstanding Scientist Medal in March, 2015 instituted by the erstwhile Planning Commission, Government of India along with Construction Development Council (CIDC). Presently he is serving as the Co-Convener of Road Design and Safety Committee i.e. H-7 Committee of Indian Roads Congress (IRC). He was instrumental in the formulation / revision of 15 IRC publications during the last 12 years. Dr. Ashish Verma obtained his Ph.D. from IIT Bombay and is currently serving as Associate Professor of Transportation Engineering at Dept. of Civil Engineering, Centre for infrastructure, Sustainable Transportation, and Urban Planning (Ci STUP), and Robert Bosch Centre for Cyber Physical Systems (RBCCPS) at Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India. He was a Visiting Professor at ITMO University, Saint Petersberg, Russia during 2016. His research interests include sustainable transportation planning, integrated public transport planning and management, modeling and optimization of transportation systems, travel behaviour, driver behaviour and road safety, intelligent transportation system (ITS), traffic management. He has authored more than 120 research publications in the area of sustainable transportation and road safety. He has also authored a book on “Public Transport Planning and Management in Developing Countries” published by CRC Press and another book on “Integrated Public Transportation System – Planning and Modelling”. He is the founding and current President of the society Transportation Research Group of India (TRG). He is presently serving as Vice Chair (Conference) of Scientific Committee, and Steering Committee Member of World Conference on Transport Research Society (WCTRS) based in the University of Leeds, UK.