Freight accessibility & locational disadvantage
Network-based accessibility for 123,591 manufacturing MSMEs across five Indian cities, and whether freight disadvantage clusters into zones policy can target.
road · rail · ICD · HDBSCAN · null modelsAnanya Saha
Transport researcher · Seeking PhD, Fall 2027
Ananya SahaAccessibility, freight & travel behaviour
I study where standard accessibility measures miss what people and firms experience, and what that gap means for planning.
- IIT (BHU) Varanasi
- B.Tech + M.Tech, Civil Engineering
- 2 papers at TRB 2027
About
I am a final-year Integrated Dual Degree student in Civil Engineering at IIT (BHU) Varanasi, graduating in 2027. My work sits between transport planning, policy and data: multimodal accessibility, urban and regional freight, travel behaviour on transit networks, and traffic operations.
Across these projects one question keeps returning. Composite indices and zone averages describe a city well, yet they hide who is underserved and by which mode. I want to build measures that hold up under rigorous testing and still answer the planner's question: who benefits, who is left out, and what would close the gap.
I work with Dr. Agnivesh Pani (SCULPT Lab) on freight accessibility and with Dr. Abhishek Mudgal on traffic microsimulation.
Research
Travel behaviour on metro networks
M.Tech thesis: transfer penalties between Delhi Metro lines, estimated from four years of station-to-station OD flows, and their effect on network accessibility. Extended to Hyderabad Metro.
OD matrices · 2021–2025 · 200+ stationsTraffic operations & road safety
Adaptive signal control under mixed traffic, and highway work-zone microsimulation calibrated from drone trajectories.
VISSIM · SUMO · W99 calibrationPapers
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2027
Multimodal Freight Accessibility and the Limits of Spatial Targeting for Locational Disadvantage: Manufacturing Enterprises in Five Indian Cities
A. Saha, S. Mishra, A. Pani
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2027
Infrastructure–Demand Decoupling along India's Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor
N. Kumar, S. Mishra, A. Saha
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2026
Hinterland port governance in India
A. Saha (second author)
Projects
MFAI: multimodal freight accessibility pipeline
Dijkstra network distances on OpenStreetMap graphs, a road–rail–ICD index tested over 625 reference-distance combinations, HDBSCAN clustering by industry, and 9,999-run spatial null models.
github.com/ananya-fml/mfai-freight-accessibility ↗Night-route safety comparison
An interactive map that compares walking routes and last-mile links to the metro by night-time activity and safety signals, starting with Kolkata.
Queue-length adaptive signal control at Lanka roundabout
An EMA-smoothed proportional controller run through VISSIM-COM, tested under monsoon, night and lane-block scenarios, then migrated in full to SUMO.
Ward-level accessibility for Varanasi
Cumulative-opportunity and gravity-based accessibility across Varanasi's 90 wards, built from Census 2011 and OpenStreetMap data.
Experience
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Jan 2027
Presenter, TRB 106th Annual Meeting
Washington, D.C. Two accepted papers on freight accessibility and the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor.
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May–Jul 2026
Research Intern, IIT Hyderabad
Highway work-zone microsimulation in PTV Vissim under Dr. Digvijay Pawar. Calibrated Wiedemann 99 parameters from a 4,435-vehicle drone trajectory dataset.
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May–Jul 2025
Research Intern, IIT Bombay
Worked on a 1:14 scale connected and automated vehicle testbed under Dr. Archak Mittal.
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2022–2027
B.Tech + M.Tech (Integrated Dual Degree), Civil Engineering
IIT (BHU) Varanasi · CGPA 8.22 / 10
Methods
Spatial & network
OSM network routing, accessibility indices, HDBSCAN and DBSCAN, spatial null models, raster work in GHSL and VIIRS night lights
Statistics
Gaussian mixture models, spatial clustering, correlation analysis, OD matrix analysis
Simulation
PTV VISSIM with COM scripting, SUMO, driver-behaviour calibration from trajectories
Tools
Python, GeoPandas, scikit-learn, QGIS, LaTeX, Git
Contact
I am applying to PhD programs for Fall 2027 and would be glad to hear from faculty working on accessibility, freight or travel behaviour.
ananya.saha.civ22@iitbhu.ac.in