The Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Programme has been operational for two decades. On 21 May 2021 it was established as TRIP Centre. It is based at the Indian Institute of Technology (Delhi) and is an interdisciplinary academic unit focusing on the reduction of adverse health effects of road transportation. TRIP Centre aims to integrate all issues concerned with transportation to promote road safety, active mobility (walking and cycling), cleaner air, and energy conservation. The major activities at the Centre include applied research projects, special courses and workshops, and supervision of student projects at PhD, masters and undergraduate levels. Research projects are conducted in collaboration with associated departments and centres at IIT Delhi, government departments, industry and international agencies.
TRIP Centre logo that was designed in 1990 by Mr Rajesh Patel symbolises human interaction with the streets. The circle along with the two wings represent human freedom, with one wing representing a pedestrian crossing and the other a road surface.
Genesis
The Transportation Research & Injury Prevention Programme (TRIPP), as the Centre was previoudly called, at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD) began life in 1997 when it was discovered that many faculty members in different departments of IITD were working separately on transportation related issues in their individual capacities. Their strength was their expertise and commitment. Their weakness: absence of synergy among them and insufficient impact of their work on the society around them. We combined our resources to develop a concept paper for the establishment of TRIPP and circulated it to national and international researchers, senior government officials, industry executives and international and non-government officials and organisations. Their comments were consolidated into a vision document and it was used to raise endowment and infrastructure funds from the Government of India, industry and other sources. With the seed money in place, TRIPP was established as an Interdisciplinary Programme of IITD at 1997.
Vision
The shared vision of researchers at TRIPP is to produce knowledge that addresses the unique transportation issues in less motorised countries. An effort to set up a system of research activities that respond dynamically to problems defined in localised contexts by including a heterogeneous set of practitioners integrating international concerns in an internally consistent format. The idea is to experiment with new forms of knowledge generation where there is a continuous negotiation between disciplines on the one hand and between scientists and society on the other.
Mission
The objective of TRIPP is to reduce the adverse health effects of transport by integrating mobility, safety and environmental concerns specific to India in particular, and other less motorised countries in general.
Progress
The establishment of TRIPP facilitated the interaction among faculty members from different departments in IITD and with professionals from outside IITD (Indian Statistical Institute Delhi, Sanchal Hazard Centre Delhi, St. Stephen’s Hospital Delhi, All India Institute of Medical Sciences Delhi, Institute of Democracy and Sustainability Delhi) to work on complex interdisciplinary problems associated with urban transport. The group is unique because it combines expertise in transportation planning, road safety, computer sciences, biomechanics, epidemiology, medicine, social sciences, applied mechanics, chemical engineering, civil engineering, electrical engineering, mathematics, mechanical engineering, biomedical engineering and econometrics for work on safety and transportation issues. TRIPP is a WHO Collaborating Centre for injury control and safety promotion since 1997. TRIPP received Centre of Excellence Grant from Volvo Research and Education foundations from 2003-2014 and Centre of Excellence grant from Ministry of Urban development from 2009-2014.
TRIP Centre has multiple endowed Chairs.
