Second round of origin destination survey launched

Islamabad : National Transport Research Centre (NTRC) has launched the 2nd round of Origin Destination Survey (OD Survey). This round of the O-D Survey will continue till May 2019 whereas the 1st round has been completed (December 2018 – January 2019).

The O-D Survey comprises of road side interviews of Passenger and Freight transport. This is a basic survey for the transportation planning of any country as it provides a detail picture of trip patterns and travel choices of the people.

Last time the survey was conducted through JICA assistance by NTRC on 100 locations of National Highways & Motorways and Provincial network. This time NTRC is doing the same survey with its own resources with much bigger coverage (200 locations) and in two rounds to cater the seasonal variations of the traffic patterns. NTRC has hired the services of M/s. Nespak and M/s. Zeruk International for the field surveys. The survey covers all the erstwhile FATA Regions, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Kashmir and all the border crossings in addition to all the four provinces.

The survey will provide the much essential data required for the master planning of the Pakistan road network. National Highway Authority will also utilize this data for better planning of Motorways and National Highways.

Technical activities in the last six months have been geared up in NTRC under the guidance of Murad Saeed, Federal Minster for Communications and Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui, Federal Secretary Communications who regularly monitor the performance of the Centre.

This year, centre will complete Vehicle Operation Cost (VOC) and Geometric patterns of loading. VOC -a basic prerequisite for appraisal of road projects whereas Geometric patterns of loading - would provide basis for introducing a law for the loading patterns in the country for all types of good vehicles which is non-existent.