Darjeeling is an important tourist hill town of West Bengal, India. It suffers from an acute problem of transportation, particularly during its peak tourist seasons due to limited road space, inadequate public transport facilities and indiscriminate use of automobiles. This hill town was originally designed for a population of 10,000, but over the years, it has come face-to-face with rapid urbanization, a rising population of both tourists and residents and intensifying motor vehicle usage. These factors together are posing a threat to its transport environment. This study identifies the Sustainable Transport Indicators (STIs) available in the existing literature to identify the critical stretches using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) based on experts' consensus. It was found that the experts placed emphasis on the mobility of the town, talking about vehicular impact on air pollution and encroachment of roads as the main issues affecting the sustainability of the transport environment. Thereafter, policy-level interventions have been suggested in accordance with the identified sustainability issues. We trust that other tourist hill towns with issues similar to Darjeeling could easily emulate the study methodology to assess their transport environment sustainability, or replicate on the lines of the recommended policy interventions.

大吉岭是印度西孟加拉邦的重要旅游山丘之乡。由于道路空间有限，公共交通设施不足和不加选择地使用汽车，特别是在旅游旺季期间，它面临着严重的运输问题。这个山城最初是为10,000人设计的，但多年来，它与快速的城市化，游客和居民的人口增加以及机动车使用量的增加形成了鲜明的对比。这些因素共同对其运输环境构成威胁。这项研究确定了现有文献中可用的可持续运输指标（STI），以基于专家共识的层次分析法（AHP）来确定关键范围。结果发现，专家们把重点放在了城镇的流动性上，讨论车辆对空气污染的影响和道路的侵占是影响运输环境可持续性的主要问题。此后，根据已确定的可持续性问题，提出了政策层面的干预措施。我们相信存在类似大吉岭问题的其他旅游山区城镇可以轻松地仿效研究方法来评估其运输环境的可持续性，或根据建议的政策干预措施进行复制。