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.
