19th Urban Mobility India Conference Ends in Bhubaneswar

The 19th Urban Mobility India (UMI) Conference and Exhibition 2026 came to a close in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, on 24 October 2026. The two-day meeting, held on 23 and 24 October, was put together by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs through the Institute of Urban Transport (India) with the support of the Odisha government, and carried the theme 'Urban Accessibility and Liveability in Digital Age'. Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs and Power Manohar Lal spoke at the valedictory session and gave away the awards for excellence and best practices in urban transport.

Three pillars for future mobility

The Minister argued that mobility has to be built into city planning from the first stage rather than added later, and offered three principles, shortened to 3-I. Integration stands for seamless travel between metro, bus and rail with sound first- and last-mile links. Inclusiveness stands for transport that women, senior citizens and persons with disabilities can use safely. Intelligence stands for artificial intelligence and real-time data put to work on traffic management and passenger safety.

Figures the Minister placed before the house

The electric buses carry roughly 2.5 lakh passengers a day. He also recalled the Transit-Oriented Development Policy cleared for Delhi in April 2026, which is to guide planned growth and affordable housing over about 207 square kilometres along metro, RRTS and railway corridors.

Sessions, exhibition and awards

Fourteen sessions were held across the two days with about 1,500 delegates and experts from India and abroad, while 28 exhibitors displayed transport technology. A research symposium carried 46 selected papers, 20 of them presented orally and 26 as posters. Among the award winners, Bhubaneswar's Comprehensive Region Urban Transport was named the city with the best green transport initiative, Greater Chennai Corporation took the award for the best non-motorised transport system, and Delhi Transport Corporation was recognised for the best public transport system as well as for the best use of big data analytics. Kochi Metro Rail won for multi-modal integration at a metro station, and Noida Metro Rail received a special award for optimising civil structural design. Odisha's minister Krushna Chandra Mahapatra said the worth of such a meeting lies in turning its ideas into work on the ground.