KOCHI: Transportation experts have been asked to identify 50 bottlenecked areas in Kochi city and suburban towns and to come up with 10 practicable suggestions to decongest them.
A decision in this regard was taken at a meeting convened by IT Secretary M. Shivsankar, who holds charge of Ernakulam district. The experts will also have to devise a time-bound action plan to prevent traffic hold-ups. Besides, they will have to take steps to identify the top five suggestions and finalise the action plan.
The meeting was convened in the backdrop of the worsening traffic problems across the State, especially in Ernakulam district where serpentine snarls are the norm.
Mr. Shivsankar said more needed to be done, apart from streamlining various modes of public transport. A team of five experts from educational institutions and others have to be identified to conduct the study, he added.
He noted that encroachments on roads and pavements and haphazard parking obstructed the smooth and safe movement of vehicles and pedestrians. “Multi-level parking lots must be established since cars eat into considerable space on the road,” he said.
Pedestrians’ safety
Mr. Shivsankar was of the view that priority must be accorded to safety of pedestrians. “They [pedestrians] must be given adequate space to walk freely, and upcoming road projects must take note of this,” he said.
The official added that the shortlisted traffic reforms should be implemented in such a way that the simplest of measures were tried first. “The views of town planning officials too must be taken into account. The steps taken by the Thaliparambu municipality could be emulated. People’s committees were formed there under the banner of the MLA, and the problems were all sorted out,” he reminded.
Speaking on the occasion, Ernakulam RTO P.H. Sadiq Ali said cars that were brought in ships from manufacturing plants must be driven to showrooms rather than transport them in wide-bodied lorries that throw traffic out of gear. Similarly, Kerala’s inland and coastal waterways must be utilised to transport hazardous chemicals and gases that are now transported in lorries, he added.
District Collector K. Mohammed Y. Safirulla and Ernakulam DCP Yatish Chandra were present.
