Urban Mobility Audit Framework for Sixteen Indian Cities

Year: 2023–2024  |  Client: Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG)  |  Country: India

Cities Forum supported the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in a landmark initiative to audit urban mobility across the country's cities as part of a wider programme evaluating 101 cities against the "ease of living" theme. Public audit institutions rarely possess a purpose-built methodology for assessing something as multi-dimensional as urban mobility; Cities Forum's role was to design exactly that, a rigorous, replicable audit framework that would allow the supreme audit institution to hold city transport systems to account on outcomes that matter to citizens.

Our approach

The assignment centred on the design of a comprehensive urban-mobility audit framework aimed at promoting low-carbon transport options and other innovative approaches to improve air quality and ensure ease of living in urban transport. Cities Forum structured the framework around clear, auditable dimensions, the provision and quality of public transport, the promotion of non-motorised and active mobility, the roll-out of electric and low-emission vehicles, road safety, accessibility and inclusion, institutional capacity, and the environmental performance of the transport sector. For each dimension the team defined indicators, evidence requirements, benchmarks and scoring logic, so that auditors across sixteen diverse cities could apply a consistent, defensible methodology while remaining sensitive to local context.

What we delivered

Beyond the framework itself, Cities Forum supported its operationalisation: guidance notes for audit teams, data-collection templates, criteria for interpreting findings, and recommendations linking audit conclusions to concrete improvement pathways for city administrations. The approach was designed to convert an accountability exercise into a lever for change, surfacing not only where cities fall short, but how low-carbon, people-centred mobility could be advanced through better planning, investment and governance.

Impact

The engagement equipped one of the world's largest public-audit institutions with a modern instrument to scrutinise and ultimately improve urban mobility across India, aligning the powerful mechanism of public audit with national goals on clean air, climate and quality of urban life. For Cities Forum, the project demonstrated a distinctive capability, translating sustainable-mobility expertise into the exacting language of public audit, and deepened its footprint in India, one of the defining arenas for the global transition to sustainable urban transport.