Three of the world's 10 slowest cities in terms of traffic speeds are in India, according to the findings by a US-based private non-profit research organisation.

As per the report, Bhiwandi in Maharashtra, Calcutta, and Bihar's Arrah are among the 10 slowest cities in the world on the speed index.

The study, conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), covered over 1,200 cities in 152 countries.

According to the report -- 'The Fast, the Slow and the Congested: Urban Transportation in Rich And Poor Countries' -- the average travel speed of motor vehicles throughout the day is the highest in Flint (US), slowest in Bangladesh capital Dhaka, and is the most congested in Bogota (Colombia).

It also said nine of the 10 cities with the slowest uncongested speeds are in Bangladesh, India, and Nigeria.

Researchers used data from Google maps to analyse traffic in more than 1,000 cities having a population of over 300,000.

Bhiwandi ranked 5th in the world's 20 slowest cities on the speed index, followed by Calcutta (6th) Arrah (7th), Bihar Sharif (11th) , Mumbai (13th), Aizawl (18th), Bengaluru (19th) and Shillong (20th).

On traffic congestion parameters, Bengaluru ranked 8th among the world's top 20 congested cities, followed by Mumbai (13th) and Delhi (20th).

Urban travellers in rich countries experience about 50 per cent higher speeds than travellers in poor countries, according to the report.

Between June 12 and November 5, 2019, NBER researchers collected 582,956,059 instances of 18,967,344 trips spanning across the 1,228 cities for their sample.

"For our three most populous countries, India, the US, and Indonesia, we collected 66 million, 57 million, and 13 million trip instances, in 173, 121, and 29 cities, respectively," the report added.

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