Speakers List
Manoranjan Parida, Dr Manoranjan Parida is presently the Director of CSIR-Central Road Research Institute, Delhi. He was Deputy Director at IIT Roorkee before joining CSIR-CRRI. He has been MoRTH Chair Professor on the Development of Highway System in India at IIT Roorkee during 2013-2017. Design and Development of Noise Barrier for Flyovers in Delhi is an innovative contribution by him. He has provided consultancy for third-party quality audit of 1700 km. of State Highway in the State of Bihar (during 2007-2013) under the RSVY Project. He has supervised 29 Ph.D. Thesis, 127 M.Tech Thesis, and published more than 500 papers in Journals/Conferences. He has provided consultancy for more than 350 urban road infrastructure projects, intercity corridors, rural roads, and expressways. He received Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Award in the year 2004 from Indian Road Congress. He has received the Outstanding Teacher Award of IIT Roorkee. He is presently Convener of the Urban Roads & Streets Committee (H-8) of the Indian Roads Congress, New Delhi. He is the convener of the PCD6 (Bitumen, Tar & Other Products) Committee of the Bureau of Indian Standards.
Masanobu Kii, Dr Masanobu Kii is a Professor at the Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University. His expertise is in spatial analysis in urban and transportation planning. His research interests range from local simulation to global impact assessment. Before joining Osaka University, he worked at Kagawa University, the Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth (RITE), the Japan Automobile Research Institute (JARI), and the Institute for Transport Policy Studies (ITPS).
K V Krishna Rao , Dr K V Krishna Rao is a Professor of Civil Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. He is currently the Deputy Director (Finance and External Affairs). Dr Rao joined IIT Bombay in 1996. He has over 35 years of teaching, research and development experience in Transportation Systems Engineering and planning. He completed his PhD in Urban Transportation Planning in 1996 and his Masters in Transportation Engineering in 1986, both from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 1984 from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, India. His research interests include sustainable urban land use transport planning, behavioural travel modelling, traffic design and analysis, and pavement analysis, design and management. He has supervised 16 PhD theses and over 90 MTech dissertations so far and completed several sponsored research and consultancy studies in his research areas. He has contributed significantly to preparing a highway capacity manual for India through a multi-institutional research effort. This manual gives the capacity and operational norms of traffic facilities having mixed traffic conditions prevailing in India. His contribution in preparing master plans for metro rail systems in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Pune is noteworthy. He has also contributed significantly to the planning aspects of the proposed passenger water transport systems in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region by estimating the passenger demand by these systems. He has several publications in refereed journals and conferences of high repute. He has also served in several administrative positions at IIT Bombay. He has served as Vice-Chairman of the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for the year 2005. As Associate Dean and Dean of Infrastructure Planning at IIT Bombay from 2006 to 2012, he implemented the much-needed building infrastructure adopting green norms. He has been the head of the civil engineering department, IIT Bombay, from 2012 to 2017 and the Centre for Urban Science and Engineering from 2020 to 2021. He was also elected to the Senate Nominations Committee of IIT Bombay in 2018 and served as a member and convener. He was conferred with Excellence in Teaching Award in 2008, 2012 and 2016 by IIT Bombay. He represented on several technical committees of the Indian Roads Congress, Government Agencies, and local bodies. Dr Rao organised the prestigious 15th edition of the World Conference on Transport Research (WCTR 2019) at IIT Bombay, Mumbai, India, from 26-31 May 2019.
Tom V. Mathew , Dr Tom V. Mathew is a faculty of the Department of Civil engineering and currently serving as the Head of the Department, and specialized in Transportation Systems Engineering. He is actively involved in teaching, academic research and development sponsored by the government and industry. Dr. Mathew completed bachelor of technology in Civil Engineering from the College of Engineering, Trivandrum, in 1991. He completed the master of technology in transportation engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai in 1993. In 1999 he finished the doctorate in Civil Engineering, again from Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai. His doctoral research was on ’bus transit route network design using genetic algorithm’. After the Ph.D, he worked as a senior software engineer in the Amada Software International for two years. Subsequently, in 2001, he joined as a faculty in the Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai. His current research interests include traffic flow modeling and simulation, traffic signal control systems, transportation network design, intelligent transportation systems, and traffic safety. He is currently teaching undergraduate and post graduate courses in transportation systems engineering and supervising several post-graduate and doctoral thesis.
Gopal R. Patil, Prof GOPAL R. PATIL Dr Gopal R. Patil is a Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay. He received his M. Tech degree in Transportation Systems Engineering from IIT Bombay in 2002 and a PhD degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, in 2007. Dr Patil worked as a Transportation Consultant in Frischmann Prabhu (India) Pvt. Ltd, Mumbai for about one and half years after M. Tech. After his PhD, he worked as a researcher and lecturer at the University of Vermont, Burlington, before joining IIT Bombay in May 2009. Dr Patil's areas of interest include transportation systems planning, network optimization, freight transportation modeling, and traffic operations. Dr Patil was instrumental in organizing many workshops (CEP, QIP, and GIAN) and conferences, including the international conference 'Transportation Planning and Implementation Methodologies for Developing Countries 2016" (12th TPMDC), for which he was the chairman. He served as the chair of the Conference Program Committee and a member of the Conference Directorate for the World Conference on Transport Research Society (WCTRS) Conference 2019. Dr Patil was the Vice-Chair (Conference) of the Scientific Committee (SCC) of WCTRS from 2019 to 2023. He is currently WCTR Country Area Representative for India and heads a session track, Road transport, under topic area A.
Somnath Kekan, Somnath Shantaram Kekan is a town planner currently serving as the Assistant Director of Town Planning at Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) since November 2023. With qualifications in civil engineering and urban planning, he began his career as an Assistant Engineer in the Irrigation Department of the Government of Maharashtra in 2012 before moving to the Town Planning Department in 2014. Over the years, he has held significant positions, including Town Planner in Alibag and Navi Mumbai. Notable achievements include contributing to the development plans for several municipal councils, playing a crucial role in the valuation of the Samruddhi Highway project, and publishing the first-ever draft development plan for NMMC. He was also nominated for an international training program in Japan, reflecting his expertise and commitment to urban and regional planning, urban redevelopment, and smart city initiatives.
Rajat Rastogi
, Dr Rajat Rastogi is presently working as Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee. He has a research and teaching experience of 34 years in Transportation Engineering. He did PhD from IIT Bombay and ME (Highways) and BE (Civil Engg.) from Punjab Engineering College Chandigarh. His research interests are in Pedestrian and Non-Motorized Traffic, Travel behaviour and its modelling, Integration of transportation systems, Policy analysis, Traffic flow analysis and Road safety. He has published 66 papers in journals and 94 papers in conferences and contributed to the edited books. The journals have Impact factor as high as 7.041. His work is well cited by other researchers with more than 1330 citations with h-index 19 and i10-index 27. He has authored a Manual for Testing of Highway Materials. He has supervised 9 Ph.D. thesis, and 6 PhD thesis are on-going. He has guided 70 M.Tech thesis and projects. He has delivered more than 75 expert lectures in activities organised by government and other institutions, like IAHE, AATUK, LDCE, UK Police, IRC, etc. Dr Rajat is a Fellow of Institution of Engineers (India) and Indian Geotechnical Society. He is a member of different professional bodies like IRC, TRG of India, IUT, IGS. He is a recipient of a Commendation Medal for Technical paper by IRC (2014) and, The institution of Engineers (India) Excellence Award in Academia and Research (2021). He is also a recipient of HRD fellowship for higher studies. He is Co-Convener of G-6 (Multimodal Transportation Systems), a member of H-1 (Transport Planning and Traffic Engg.) and H-8 (Urban Roads and Streets) committee of Indian Roads Congress, and friend member of AP025, AME10, ACH20, AKD10, AEP25, and AME50 of Transportation Research Board, USA. He is on Board of Studies for Civil Engineering of Rajasthan Technical University. He has contributed to different projects at national and regional level like RRTS, AP Capital City priority planning, safe truck movements in industries, design safety and operational safety audit of different NH and ring roads, etc. The work carried out under his guidance has been incorporated in the revision of IRC: 103 Guidelines for Pedestrian Facilities (2012 and 2022). He worked as a core member in the development of Indian Highway Capacity Manual (Indo-HCM). The present work on inland water transportation, active and public transportation and multi-modal passenger transportation will be of value for relevant IRC guidelines.
Gitakrishnan Ramadurai
, Dr Gitakrishnan Ramadurai is a Professor in Department of Data Science and AI in the Wadhwani School for Data Science and AI at Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He is also the faculty-in-charge of the Mobility and Intelligent Transportation (MInT) collaborative – an industry-government-academia collaborative effort working towards building a digital public infrastructure for mobility. His professional focus is in developing technological and behavioral solutions for a safe and sustainable transportation system. His primary research interests are in applying network modelling, dynamic traffic simulation and assignment, data science/AI and optimization techniques to Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), logistics, public transit, and road safety. In 2021, he founded the start-up GoodMove Logistics and Transport focusing on sustainable city logistics. He has co-authored over 100 conference and journal research articles. He has served as a principal / co-investigator in Government of India and industry funded projects with total funding of over ₹ 50 crores. He has advised Chennai Port Trust, JNPT, Kolkata Port Trust and CIDCO, Navi Mumbai on improving congestion of trucks destined to ports, and various government organizations including Chennai Corporation, Tamil Nadu Police, Tamil Nadu Health Department, and Metropolitan Transport Corporation on ITS technology implementation, transportation planning and management, and road safety. He was a corresponding member of the IRC H-8 committee on urban roads from 2015-17. He received his Ph.D. in Transportation Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, in June 2009, M.S. in Civil Engineering from University of Texas at Austin in December 2003, and B.Tech. with honors in Civil Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee in May 2002. He was recognized with the Young Faculty Recognition Award by IIT Madras in 2020 and awarded First Place in the 2009 Dissertation Prize by Transportation Science and Logistics Society, Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS) in San Diego, USA. He is a recipient of New York Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s September 11 Memorial Program Fellowship in 2007-08. He strongly believes in work-life balance. He has been a meditator for over 20 years and teaches yoga, pranayama, and meditation techniques to lead a stress-free and satisfying life. Though he loves to travel and play different sports, presently these activities are centred around his time with his two kids aged 5 and 10.
Arnab Jana
, Dr Arnab Jana is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, and associate faculty at the Centre for Policy Studies, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay. He works in the field of urban infrastructure policy and planning, primarily focusing on the application of ICT and analytics to address sustainability and environmental issues. He was visiting faculty at Hiroshima University, Japan, in 2016. He has a Ph.D. in Urban Engineering from the University of Tokyo, Japan. He was awarded the prestigious Monbukagakusho Scholarship by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT), Government of Japan. He is also an alumnus of the Asian Program of incubation of Environmental Leadership (APIEL), University of Tokyo. He has guided several doctoral and postgraduate students and has authored numerous peer-reviewed articles in journals, conferences, and books. Dr. Jana is the principal investigator in several projects pertaining to urban planning and engineering, building sciences, and public health policy. The projects are primarily funded by MHRD, DST, British Academy, UNICEF, State Governments such as Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and so on. He is affiliated to several professional and academic bodies such as COA and ITPI.
Prasanta Sahu
, Dr Prasanta Sahu is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani (BITS Pilani) at Hyderabad, India. He holds a Ph.D. in Transportation Systems Engineering (TSE) from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay) and a Master’s in TSE from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT Kanpur). Dr. Sahu is an Adjunct Professor at the Price Faculty of Engineering at the University of Manitoba, Canada. Prof. Sahu has been a pioneering contributor to freight transportation planning and policy in India, with numerous high-quality publications aiming to improve the logistic efficiency of goods movement. The foundation of his research has been the application of rigorous quantitative methods for modelling freight demand and assessing the negative externalities of city logistics operations. The model systems developed by Prof. Sahu are disseminated in top-tier transportation journals and are available for policymakers requiring freight demand quantifications at the disaggregated levels of establishments and Ports. At BITS Pilani, Prof. Sahu leads an associate research center (ARC) of the Center of Excellence on Sustainable Urban Freight Systems (CoE-SUFS). Through ARC, he is working towards fostering sustainability efforts in urban freight transport planning and operations. He also focuses on green mobility planning, quality of life, demand management schemes such as congestion pricing and transport emissions. Multiple projects led by Prof. Sahu in these research areas are currently ongoing under the sponsorship of funding schemes such as Asian Development Bank, Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), Govt. of the United Kingdom and Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC), MHRD, Asian Smart Cities Research Innovation Network, Australia, UK India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI), Govt. of India, Public Works Department, Govt. of Telangana. Prof. Sahu serves as a Handling Editor of Transportation Research Record and Editorial Board Member of Transportation in Developing Economies. Also, he serves as Guest Editor to Research in Transportation Economics and the Journal of International Logistics and Trade. Prof. Sahu is the Standing Committee Member of AT015-Freight Transportation Planning and Logistics, Transportation Research Board and Editor of AT015. He is also a life member of the Institute of Urban Transport (IUT) India and Transportation Research Group (TRG) India and the Indian Road Congress (IRC). Prof. Sahu is also the Scientific Committee Chair for the 8th Conference of the TRG, which is scheduled in December 2025 at IIT Guwahati. Further, he serves as an Executive Board Member of the Transportation Research Group, India. Additionally, he is a visiting faculty to the University of Regina, Canada, and Cardiff University, Wales, UK.
B. K. Bhavathrathan
, Dr. B. K. Bhavathrathan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Palakkad. He is experienced in the field of Transportation Systems, including a postdoctoral position at the Future Urban Mobility Group in Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology and a PhD in Transportation Systems Engineering from IIT Bombay. His research interests include Road Networks, Road Safety, Network Disruptions and Resilience. Dr. Bhavathrathan has published papers and has taught courses in the field, including 'Analysis and Design of Transportation Networks', 'Transportation Engineering', 'Traffic Engineering', and 'Optimization Techniques in Engineering'. He can be reached at bhavathrathan@iitpkd.ac.in.
K. Ramachandra Rao
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