Chandigarh: PEC’s rural connectivity study presented at global transport meet

Punjab Engineering College (PEC) assistant professor B Adinarayana presented a rural connectivity study at the World Conference on Transport Research in Toulouse, France.

The study assessed how terrain affects access to roads and public services in mountainous rural settlements of West Garo Hills district, covering 1,176 habitations with a population of about 5.01 lakh.

It combined satellite imagery, digital elevation data, machine learning, and stakeholder input to map accessibility, achieving 89.7% accuracy in identifying habitations via remote sensing.

Accessibility varied nearly fivefold across settlements; 57.7% of habitations had low or very low accessibility, and settlements above 600 metres elevation accounted for 81% of the least accessible ones.

The study argued that standard road connectivity measures overstate accessibility in hilly regions and recommended travel time-based indicators for planning rural infrastructure.