16^th International Conference on Transportation Planning and Implementation Methodologies for Developing Countries (TPMDC)

Professor Yoshitsugu Hayashi is an internationally recognised scholar in transportation planning, urban development, and sustainability. He is Professor Emeritus at Nagoya University and has served as Distinguished Professor at Chubu University. He earned his Doctor of Engineering degree from the University of Tokyo in 1979. His pioneering research integrates transport and land-use interactions with urban quality of life, environmental sustainability, climate-change mitigation, disaster resilience, and the evaluation of long-term infrastructure impacts. He has advanced approaches to transport investment appraisal that consider accessibility and individual well-being alongside conventional economic performance measures. Professor Hayashi has played prominent international leadership roles, including President of the World Conference on Transport Research Society from 2013 to 2019, and serves on the Executive Committee of the Club of Rome. His work has supported major transport and urban-development initiatives, including rail-system planning in Bangkok and international studies of high-speed rail and smart-city development. Author or editor of approximately 50 books and more than 250 academic papers, he has received numerous research and professional awards, including recognition from Japan's Minister of the Environment. His contributions have shaped global discussion on sustainable mobility and people-centred urban policy.

Professor Shashi Nambisan, Ph.D., P.E., is Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Director of the Transportation Research Center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). He holds a B.Tech. in Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, an M.S. in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech, and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. With more than three decades of experience in transportation research and academic leadership, his work spans transportation safety and risk analysis, infrastructure management, transportation planning and economics, emerging mobility technologies, electric vehicles, and data-enabled decision support. As PI or co-PI, he has led efforts on more than 180 research projects, grants, and gifts, with associated awards exceeding US$75 million. His contributions to major U.S. Department of Transportation initiatives have focused on improving transportation safety, network capacity, and travel-time reliability through innovative technologies, thereby supporting transportation policy development, infrastructure planning, and operational decision-making.

Dr. Vishal Ramesh Thombare serves as the Deputy Chief Engineer, Roads Planning (In Charge), at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), where he plays a significant role in the planning, development, and improvement of Mumbai’s urban road infrastructure. He holds a Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and is a Chartered Engineer with extensive professional experience in civil engineering, concrete technology, pavement rehabilitation, and infrastructure development. Prior to joining BMC in 1997, he worked in the cement industry, specialising in high-performance concrete applications. Throughout his career at BMC, he has undertaken key responsibilities in quality control, infrastructure planning, and research, including contributions to the Mumbai Coastal Road Project and the city's road development initiatives. His technical expertise particularly encompasses the application of ultra-thin and thin white-topping technologies for the rehabilitation of asphalt pavements, promoting durable and sustainable concrete pavement solutions suited to Indian urban conditions. He has also contributed to technical committees of the Indian Roads Congress and the Bureau of Indian Standards and has held leadership positions in professional concrete-engineering associations.

Shri Pankaj Saxena is a senior railway infrastructure professional and an officer of the 1987 batch of the Indian Railway Service of Engineers (IRSE), with more than three decades of experience in civil engineering, railway infrastructure development, and project administration. He holds a B.Tech. in Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee and an M.Tech. in Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. During his distinguished career with Indian Railways, he has served across Central Railway, Northern Railway, and East Central Railway, as well as Rail Vikas Nigam Limited. His senior leadership assignments have included Divisional Railway Manager of the Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Division, Director at the Railway Board, and Principal Executive Director (Bridge) at the Railway Board. In April 2022, he was appointed Director (Project Planning) of the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL), a key organisation in the development of India's freight-rail infrastructure. His experience encompasses railway civil works, bridges, corridor planning, and the coordination of complex infrastructure programmes. He has also undertaken advanced professional training in several countries, including Austria, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, Singapore, and the United States.

Professor Animesh Das is a faculty member in the Department of Civil Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, specialising in transportation and pavement engineering. He completed his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, and his research interests encompass pavement material characterization, structural pavement analysis and design, pavement evaluation, maintenance management, and the long-term performance of road infrastructure. His work combines theoretical modelling with experimental investigation, including studies of asphalt mixtures, aggregate geometry, pavement surface characteristics, recycling, reliability, and the optimal allocation of maintenance resources. Through scholarly publications, teaching, and research supervision, he has contributed to improved engineering methods for durable and cost-effective pavements. His achievements have been recognised by several prestigious honours, including the AICTE Career Award for Young Teachers, the Indian National Academy of Engineering Young Engineer Award, the Indian Roads Congress Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Award, and a Fulbright–Nehru Senior Research Fellowship.

Mr. Venkata Subbarao Chunduru is a transportation and infrastructure leader with more than 25 years of professional experience in traffic engineering, intelligent transportation systems, and the planning and delivery of complex mobility projects. An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, he holds a master's degree in Transportation Systems Engineering. At Arcadis, he has assumed the role of Regional Service Executive for Asset Management Services across the Asia-Pacific region while continuing his responsibilities as Country Director for India Operations. His experience encompasses transport-demand modelling, traffic management, smart-city systems, public transit, highways, ports, and technology-enabled infrastructure operations. He has been associated with major Indian mobility and infrastructure initiatives, including intelligent traffic management in Hyderabad and the ASTraM (Actionable Intelligence for Sustainable Traffic Management) platform in Bengaluru. He advocates the application of digital twins, connected data, artificial intelligence, and lifecycle engineering to improve asset performance, resilience, operational efficiency, and public value. Through industry leadership and the deployment of data-driven mobility solutions, he contributes to the development of smarter, safer, and more sustainable transport systems.