Bosky Khanna By Express News Service BENGALURU: In order to address the issue of people crowding at provision stores in the wake of the COVID-19 lockdown, scientists of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have proposed a ‘Hub-and-Spoke Model for Essential Commodity Distribution’ so that proper social distancing is maintained. In the paper, a copy of which is with TNIE, they have suggested that the government take up the responsibility of procuring and supplying provisions to people through the ideally standing public transport vehicles. Professor Ashish Verma, associate professor, transportation systems engineering, department of civil engineering, said, “Hubs could be a combination of TTMCs, metro stations or railway stations where government procures and accumulates, under its control, essential goods for distribution/sale (free for poor people and chargeable at reasonable rates for others) every day. The spokes can be localities/wards/sub-areas/PDS zones where distribution needs to be done at doorsteps. Each spoke can be assigned to the nearest designated hub based on the shortest distance criteria and for the purpose of minimizing the total distribution time till the individuals’ doorsteps. Likewise, for distribution to individual houses within each spoke, smaller vehicles can be used.” He added that to enable this system to work, it was important to create a network of people, who in their designated spoke assess the requirements of essential goods on a daily basis and report it to the designated person/ official at the assigned hub. With a carefully designed web of these hub and spoke locations and the optimum use of large and small vehicles, the overall distribution time can be minimised with cost-effective operation. This system will also enable the use of different assets of vehicles and infrastructure which is almost ideal in the current situation as there are no passengers during lockdown and will also help those who are driving to earn some money, Verma said. He said that to enable unhindered movement of personnel related to declared essential services, the government can use a different coloured ink stamp (so as to differentiate them for the colour used for quarantine stamp).

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