Eminent transportation scientist Dr. S. Velmurugan to head the inaugural Bangalore Chapter
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], June 29: ITS India Forum, one of the country’s most influential collectives for Intelligent Transportation Systems, will launch its first-ever regional chapter in Bangalore in July 2026, a landmark moment that coincides with the Forum’s three year celebration. The launch opens a new phase of localized action, knowledge exchange and innovation as India accelerates toward smarter, safer and more sustainable mobility.
Lending remarkable gravitas to the occasion, the Bangalore Chapter will be helmed by Dr. S. Velmurugan, one of India’s most respected authorities on traffic engineering and road safety. His leadership signals the Forum’s clear intent: anchoring its regional expansion in deep technical credibility and a proven track record of impact.
A Scientist Who Has Shaped Indian Roads
Dr. Velmurugan recently superannuated in February 2026 as Chief Scientist and Head of the Traffic Engineering and Safety (TES) Division at CSIR – Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), New Delhi, after an extraordinary tenure of more than 32 years. He holds a Ph.D. in Transportation Systems Engineering from IIT Bombay (1995) and a First Class with Distinction Master’s in Traffic and Urban Engineering (1989), and has sharpened his expertise through post-doctoral research at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, and the University of South Australia.
Across more than three decades, he has shaped policy and practice at the very highest levels of Indian road engineering — contributing to the formulation and revision of 18 Indian Road Congress (IRC) publications and serving on multiple IRC technical committees as Expert Member, Sub-Group Convener and Co-Convener. He has steered over 150 projects backed by the World Bank, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), state Public Works Departments and private institutions, with Road Safety Audits under his watch spanning an astonishing 27,000-plus kilometres of Indian roads.
His flagship “Indian Highway Capacity (Indo-HCM)” study, completed in 2018, was delivered as Project Champion coordinating seven premier academic institutions including IITs, NITs and SPAs. As Joint Course Coordinator of CSIR-CRRI’s 15-day certification programme, he has personally helped train 997 certified Road Safety Auditors. His recent multidisciplinary work — iRASTE: Nagpur and iRASTE: Telangana — has pioneered AI- and engineering-led solutions for safer urban and interurban corridors. He has also authored over 150 papers in international and national forums.
Three Years of ITS India Forum: Shaping the Future of Mobility
Three years but one mission, to make India’s transportation systems intelligent, integrated and world-class. Since its founding, ITS India Forum has united policymakers, industry leaders, academia, technology innovators and civil society on a single, action-driven platform. It has championed standards-led ITS deployment, advanced smart-city mobility, and shaped the national discourse on road safety, connected infrastructure, vehicle automation and sustainable urban transport. In just three years, the Forum has established itself as India’s foremost convener on intelligent mobility — credible, neutral and authoritative. Its work reflects a defining national truth: smarter roads, smarter vehicles and smarter systems are no longer aspirational. They are essential to India’s economic momentum and to its human progress.
Why Bangalore, Why Now
Bangalore — India’s technology capital and a city contending with some of the country’s most complex mobility challenges — is a fitting home for the Forum’s first chapter. The July 2026 launch will convene leading experts, government officials, mobility start-ups, OEMs and researchers to set a regional agenda focused on real-world ITS deployment, evidence-based road safety interventions and people-centric urban transport.
As ITS India Forum steps into its fourth year, the Bangalore Chapter under Dr. Velmurugan promises to be far more than a milestone — it is the beginning of a deeper, region-driven movement to transform how India moves.
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