A proposal worth Rs. 55 crore drawn up by the National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (NATPAC) for a pedestrian-friendly urban transport system in the city will have to wait longer with the Central government asking for a detailed project report.
The proposal was forwarded to the Central government by the local self-government department under the Kerala Sustainable Urban Development Project. NATPAC will now have to prepare a DPR before the proposal gets implemented with Central approval.
Once the DPR is prepared, it will have to be vetted by a State-level high power committee. The committee is empowered to call for rectifications or even outright deletions in the report before it is forwarded to the Centre for approval.
However, it would take some time, as NATPAC is presently engaged in drawing up similar proposals for Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Thrissur, and Kozhikode corporations. While survey is underway in Kollam, it has been completed and proposals being firmed up for Thiruvananthapuram corporation.
A senior official of NATPAC said it would be at least six months before preparation of a DPR was taken up. The possibility of preparing DPRs for proposals being prepared for all corporations simultaneously cannot be ruled out.
NATPAC had drawn up the proposal on pedestrian-friendly urban transport system based on a three-month long field study of the important points in the city. It makes comprehensive recommendations for improving the existing pedestrian facilities and providing additional amenities in addition to accounting for their proper maintenance.
The proposal earmarks Rs. 22.74 crore for pedestrian facilities; Rs. 1.11 crore for crosswalk and signal facilities; Rs. 8.12 crore for pedestrian amenities, street furniture, landscaping, and greening; Rs. 8.09 crore for side drains; Rs. 5 crore for junction improvement; Rs. 4.80 crore for foot overbridges; and Rs. 4.99 crore for three-year maintenance of these facilties.
The proposal recommended integration of pedestrian facilities with all modes of public transportation, including the upcoming Kochi Metro, to improve the share of public transport in the city considerably from the existing 35-38 per cent. Even that was not enough, as a city like Kochi should ideally have a public transport share of at least 60 per cent.
The proposal assumes significance considering that Kochi comes in the bottom half of cities in the country when it comes to pedestrian facilities, especially ‘walkability’ of footpaths. Walkability indicates how walker-friendliness of an area based on factors including presence or the absence of footpaths, traffic and roadway conditions, land-use pattern, building openings and continuity and safety of pedestrians.
Only the Marine Drive Road in the city between BTH and the High Court had been classified as good in terms of walkability index calculated between .30 and .60. Although other roads have footpaths, they were not walkable as there were ups and downs, discontinuity, hurdles, and encroachments. The proposal recommended removal of all such hurdles and encroachments so that a minimum width of 1.80 metre as per the Indian Road Congress can be maintained.
Though a width of 1.2 metre is also acceptable, it ruled out the scope for wheelchair movement, hampering the scope for inclusive development. Though the height of the footpath should not exceed 15 cm, 90 per cent of the footpaths in the city violated this norm.
