It’s been nearly three years now since the design for community footpaths in Nanganallur was submitted to the Greater Chennai Corporation. However, the work has not yet started.
The Traffic and Transportation Forum in association with Transparent Chennai, a research organisation that focuses on civic services such as housing, sanitation, waste management and pedestrian safety, submitted the design to the former Joint Commissioner (Works) of Chennai Corporation, Vijay Pingale and former Chennai Mayor Saidai Duraisamy.
In 2013, a workshop was organised to empower the citizens so that they could work towards better pedestrian infrastructure within their neighbourhoods. With regard to the design in Nanganallur, feedback was given by the community through a workshop in July 2013 and at a follow-up meeting in January 2014. In the follow-up meeting, focus was on a local road redesign that sought to nominally improve pedestrian safety.
Participants worked with scaled models of the streets and visualised designs that would make the streets safe and conducive for walking. “The former Commissioner and the former Mayor liked the design and promised that the Corporation will implement the designed footpath.
Also, we have been raising the issue at periodic intervals with the Corporation officials,” V. Rama Rao, director, Traffic and Transportation Forum, Chennai, said.
Data about the pavements were presented to the stakeholders at the two-part workshop to inform them about what constitutes a good pedestrian infrastructure.
The Forum as well as Transparent Chennai batted for furniture zone, which should act as a buffer between the pedestrian zone and vehicular traffic. It should only accommodate utilities such as lamp posts, electric poles and also vendors. Other important aspects during the design process included that the footpaths outside the institutions should be designed to be wide and have bollards that act as barriers and prevent students from stepping on to the roads.
“Two-way traffic lanes should be separated by a median. This will act as a buffer between opposing traffic and provide refuge to pedestrians crossing the road,” said a resident.
The design study would form the basis for the pedestrian infrastructure design for Nanganallur. This was presented along with an implementation plan so that ideas that are best suited for the neighbourhood can be put in place.
“We will look into the design and implementation plan and study all obstructions on footpaths. In some areas, footpaths are poorly lit and we will also be studying the lighting issue as well. Soon, we will hold meetings with residents and get inputs on how they want their footpaths.
“Based on the inputs, an action plan will be formulated and implemented,” officials said.
