The Chennai Corporation will soon develop Usman Road, Thyagaraya Road and Sivaparakasam Road as model roads in the city. This will be the preliminary step towards redevelopment of T. Nagar after the civic body relocates hawkers to the complex it had built in Pondy Bazaar.
The civic body officials are waiting for the court orders to proceed with the relocation of the hawkers on the three roads. Within a week of a court order, the roads would be cleared of hawkers, said an official.
After 210 hawkers on Usman Road are relocated to the complex, the work on improving the aesthetics of the road is also likely to begin. The road would become more pedestrian-friendly. The number of hawkers to be relocated from Thyagaraya Road is 305. Fourteen hawkers are likely to be removed from Sivaprakasam Road to the complex that has been built on 43,032 sq.ft. space with three lifts. It would locate a total of 644 hawkers and shopkeepers, including those in the previous complex on the same site.
Survey of the roads would be done including the trees on the stretch. The footpaths on either side of the roads range from 10 to 15 feet in width. The average width of the footpath is around 12 feet.
Trees will not be cut down during the process of development of some of the stretches into model roads, said an official. Everything would comply with urban development norms, he added.
