Rs.333.27 crore has been approved for implementation of the initiative
The Chennai Corporation on Tuesday began a field survey of roads to adopt world-class street design and planning for the city.
In the first phase, a total of 60 roads extending to a length of 45 km in the seven zones of the old city limits have been identified by the civic body and a field survey commenced on G.N.Chetty Road. Activities on the roads in the zones of Tondiarpet, Royapuram, Thiru.Vi.Ka.Nagar, Anna Nagar, Teynampet, Kodambakkam and Adyar will be identified for proper design and planning.
The first capacity building workshop on street design and planning was also held by the engineers of the Chennai Corporation with the assistance of a non-governmental organisation Chennai City Connect.
The engineers discussed case studies of such design and planning of streets in cities including Paris, Singapore and New York.
A proposal has been made for public conveniences that will come up every 500 metre on such roads.
“This is an excellent step forward by the Chennai Corporation in providing good facilities for the citizens. Several world renowned cities have adopted street standards and planning and have succeeded in transforming their cities,” said Raj Cherubal of City Connect.
“Pedestrian crossing on Nungambakkam High Road is not adequate. Traffic Police presence is also less on the road,” said R.B.Saravanan, a resident of the locality.
For the remaining eight zones in the Chennai Corporation, the State government had already given financial approval for a grid system of roads, streetlights, street furniture, footpaths, parking space and stormwater drains as part of the Mega City Development Mission.
A total of Rs.333.27 crore has been approved for the implementation of the initiative.
The grid system focuses on clearing traffic bottlenecks around major junctions of congestion in all the eight zones.
As many as 360 roads in the Tiruvottiyur, Manali, Madhavaram, Ambattur, Valasaravakkam, Alandur, Perungudi and Sholinganallur zones would be taken up for integrated development as part of the project.
Keywords: Chennai Corporation, street design, Chennai city planning
First of all i would like to get to know as to what is meant by the word foot path and who is using the same in chennai if so foot path is in existance,very often i have seen people urinating and spitting in roads, busstand, stops,Railway platforms then there is a whole lot of problem with chennai, if you call ur city a world class city, i would defenitely like to get an explanation in terms of the meaning of the same.
Basic requirement from the people of Tamilnadu is keeping the space in front of their home clean. For this, the government should provide adequate infrastructure to clean up the garbage. As soon as you reach any city in Tamilnadu, you are welcomed by garbage stink. First make tamilnadu clean. Remove all the posters and hoardings from the adorning all the compound walls. The whole city and tamilnadu state will become world class.
A much needed change in India. I hope other cities follow these too. To add to what Ramya S has written, I feel there is a need for the following changes:
1). Medians and Lanes be well painted with reflectors.
2). Electronic Boards displaying travel time in certain roads.
3). Penalties for those digging up the roads.
4). Penalties for those delaying civil works on the roads.
5). Bus stops be made inside bays, so that the traffic do not
get blocked every time a bus stops at a bus stop.
6). To avoid toll gate disasters, make toll road passes mandatory.
7). All pavements and medians be cemented, so that the mud/dust don't
block the drains.
8). Roads be made animal free zone by taking the strays to the animal
shelters. A penalty be levied on the animal owner.
9). Clear the slums from the pavements; Put them in some open space,
else these poor slum dwellers will set it up on another pavement.
10).Defecating on the pavements,Jaywalking be made punishable.
Best of our Roads and Streets are 100 years behind the world class designs. Firstly we need a Storm Water drain system along both sides of all our streets and Roads conected to underground storm water channels. All our streets and roads should be fully topped (concrete) end to end without leaving the last 1 m on both sides which cause the dirt and dust accumulation. Do we know what is 'world class'?
While I agree with most of the above comments and pourings, I have one question to every one who commented as well as who is reading this.
How many of us - Do not carry our trash in plastic bags in the morning while going to work and dump it in an empty plot?
How many of us think twice before trashing on the middle of the road and restrain?
How many of us restrain from digging the roads (mainly local roads) in the night to make a pipe from our home sewage to the rain water drainage?
How many of us restrain from building an access slope from our elevated houses to the lower level street there by taking the side space of streets
How many of us make it a point to not to unload construction materials on road side?
I neither work for government nor I support any of the state or central government which is - Filthy!
But we all as citizens should ask ourself, are we doing the right things. It is easy to blame others but not self.
A very belated but welcome step! Go out to the developed world and see how they plan their roads and then try to make our roads as better as you can. We dont even have to go there, just gather and analyse the many brilliant resources on town planning and road maps which would give lots of information.
Some points to consider:
1.A nameplate for every road in the city - the nameplate should have the same design everywhere
2.Pay and Use Public Parking lots at strategic locations
3.Storm water drains for all low lying roads
4.Garbage collection bins at bus stops
5.Efficient Street-lights, effectively placed
6.Foot-over bridges at busy intersections
7.Speed-breakers at appropriate locations
8.Maintenance and repair works during night time as much as possible
9.Strict monitoring of illegally parked vehicles
10.Speed cameras at strategic locations
11.Separate pick-up and drop-off locations for share-autos and taxis
12.Use of high-tech cleaning machines for big roads.
Is there anything called "world-class street design"? Any major city - New York, Paris, Shanghai, Tokyo in the so called developed world has challenges. There is too little space for all the type of vehicles and pedestrians sharing the road. We need to encourage shared/public transport as a means of travel within the city and discourage the use of motor vehicles by implementing heavy toll rates during peak hours (London for example). Provide multi-storied parting garages for people to park their cars. Encourage energy efficient vehicles for public transport.
There are cities in Europe which has discouraged owning motor vehicles and promote bicycle.
This is a passionate subject of many and the critics will have a field day. It is not from lack of trying that we are in the current situation. The Corporation of Madras has good intentions but unfortunately they lack the neccessary expertise. They need to get help from the City planners from established experts in the field from cities like Singapore, London, Paris, New York etc.....
I am skeptical. Nothing will happen. I live in a neighborhood and apartment complex that is
considered affluent in one of the more 'exclusive' areas of the city. Many foreigners and
MNCs live here. The streets and pavements are supposedly planned and paved, it's a joke.
Every apartment in these buidlings sell for over 3-4 crores. Yet the streets are filthy, stray
dogs everywhere, street vendors adding to the heaps of garbage everywhere, traffic chaos,
illegal parking and a total indifference and lack of civility by a population that couldn't care
less. This is the modern, educated, new affluent chennai we are building. You can't
compare with Singapore, Paris and new York, there they have order and discipline and
governance - we don't.
Why always VIP roads? Why can`t it be experimented in the outskirt of
city limits? For example, Guindy to Puzhudhivakkam road can be tried.
Pouring money on rich localities has become a fashion.
Do not lay an world class road and then dig holes for various reasons...Plan it properly and it does not have to be flashy..
The government should rather start with clearing out the garbage properly. There is no point trying to emulate developed countries and their quality of infrastructure when basic infrastructure like proper roads, electricity and water are pathetic.
There are many suburbs in Chennai without road. Government should spend the 333 Crore for serious concerns than asthetic items.Lets pray to get a road than comparing ourself with developed cities.
I would rather have good roads with walkable footpaths rather than some utopian world-class look!
Good initiative by Chennai Corporation. As a resident of Chennai it is impretative on our part for sustainablity of such public infrastructure projects devoid political partisan.
The CM did a wonderful job of setting up the Koyambedu Bus Terminus in
her earlier regime. I'm very sure if she promises something she will
deliver it. Let's wait and watch before responding negatively.
This is indeed a very good initiative taken by the Chennai Corporation. Hope the plans don't stop with the survey. City has to be improved first with the roads and pedestrians, specially the parking which is one such most important one.
Even if the pedestrians are laid along with the roads there is no proper maintenance done. I feel city would be a great will all these plans to get upgraded and maintained in a better way .The citizens living will also get a feeling that they really live in a City and thus adds to the liveliness .
Hope these good changes would never be stopped with any Govt. change.
Valasarawakkam/Virugambakkam - they have started with median work. I believe this is part of this grid system fund. Hope we get the plastic roads as well- arcot road between Avichi-Porur have bad roads. Similarly valasarawakkam - nerkundram, valasarawakkam - ramapuram, valasarawakkam - ramapuram stretch also have bad roads... in some places no road at all. As far as the interior streets are concerned the digging of roads done by previous govt for drainage (without implementing drainage - just damaging roads and streets) has created mud roads near alapakkam, maduravoyal,nerkundram etc and it looks like a lake causing huge difficulties to pedestrians and vehicle owners. So these also need to be taken care of.
The Govt. may take up laying roads / patches which will sound serious
and effective than considering World Class Design project. Let us first
pray for shoes, than for world class shoes.
As a country India, while trying to claim a place at the high table on the world stage, cannot even lay proper roads for use by its citizens. Given the pathetic state of affairs when it comes to urban infrastructure, I say forget world class roads. I would be happy if the Corporation can do the bare minimum ie. lay roads that don't spring potholes after the first shower and provide for walk-worthy pavements for pedestrian to use. The next step would be to ensure that these 'decent' roads & pavements are maintained well and not dug up periodically at the slightest pretext. It is high time we redeemed ourselves as a nation to show the world that we can have usable public infrastructure.
"grid system of roads, streetlights, street furniture, footpaths, parking space"
Chennai is a place with lot of dust (today's state) and lot of moisture. Government and Engineers involved should think about materials with which they want to deliver the infrastructure. Example: making a street furniture in iron, will make it rust in some time due to chennai's moisture. Another example of poort engineering i have is, roads laid after underground sewage effort, had the man hole cover protruding 2 feet above the road (near tambaram). In the night, I am sure a 2 wheeler will incur an accident.Every city, even in developed nations, where there is supposed to be social responsibility to not misuse public belongings, there are regular clean ups, with advanced machines with standard designs for things. Obviously, chennai needs it too. City planning is definitely an art. Hope people doing it takes pride and design things world class.
Please Email the Editor