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The distance is roughly a kilometre-and-half. The weather is fine. The roads are congested. The sidewalk looks quite promising until you get to it. You soon confront loose slabs and gaping holes on the sidewalk.

Then it disappears completely from view on North Railway Overbridge.

The bridge does not have a place for pedestrians and you realise how risky it is to walk this way. However, you make it through the rush of two-wheelers and autorickshaws. Once you are past the bridge, the hurdles you face are a little different from crossing the rail overbridge.

The level differences make the sidewalk difficult to negotiate. Chances are that while you keep watching your steps you also keep bump into people and you will be exhausted by the time you meet your friend.

You would most probably be late and tell your friend that it was no walk in the garden, that you crossed the roads where there were no zebra lines, that the level differences of the sidewalks tested your concentration and that it would be better not to walk about at all in the city.

That is a lesson learnt the hard way. For the thousands of walkers and would-be walkers, Kochi offers no solace of any sort.

And that should be a cause for offence for a city that is poised to ride the big wave of economic growth over the coming decades. The volume of investments, the type of international attention it is getting and people’s expectations from its planners make it imperative that Kochi, like several other modern-day urban centres, becomes a walkable city, encouraging pedestrians and simply those who love to walk.

Contrast the Kochi situation with what Michael Southworth, urban planner, said in his article ‘Reclaiming the Walkable City’: “Walkability” might be defined as the extent to which the built environment supports and encourages walking by providing for pedestrian comfort and safety, connecting people with varied destinations within a reasonable amount of time and effort, and offering visual interest in journeys throughout the network.”

We are in a city where we need autorickshaws to cross the roads, says C. R. Neelakandan, social activist, referring to the rush on the roads and the little chance pedestrians stand in Kochi.

Zebra lines are hardly respected and it is totally unsafe and unhealthy to walk the streets of Kochi.

He paints a grim picture of the scene when he says that the land prices have led to mindless expansion of commercial space.

The pessimism is justifiable to a great extent because pedestrian facilities appear to have been created grudgingly. And wherever they are in the city, you might find the sidewalks being used as temporary store for building materials or as space for vendors who run make-shift shops.

Garbage bins and electric posts are other hurdles you meet head-on while walk about the city. Is it that Government agencies responsible for regulating development have failed? There are basic difficulties in implementing the Government policies, says a senior official of the Town Planning Department.

He referred to the recent row over implementing the new Floor Area Ratio (FAR) stipulated by the Department.

Making Kerala Building Rules applicable in panchayat areas has been a major step in the recent past by the Government to create more people-friendly building practices, he said. Established builders create people-friendly settings and ambience, he added.

From the planning point of view, India began quite late in analysing the urbanisation process. The first-ever attempt to take stock of urbanisation came in the 1980s with the National Commission on Urbanisation (http://www.townplanning. kerala.gov.in/Urban%20 Policy.html).

And Kerala has had its peculiar problems with urbanisation, the predominant one being the rapid expansion of the urban areas as well as urbanisation of new areas. There is an urban-rural continuum that marks Kerala.

As the cities push their borders, they pose special problems for planners especially when taking into consideration the need for speedy transport. In the process pedestrian and facilities for the walkers are hardly taken into consideration.

Holding back the urban sprawl is one of the solutions suggested by G. Jayagopal, a leading architect in Kochi and who was a central figure in making a study of sustainable development in the city with the example of South Kadavanthara. Spread of the urban area led to the destruction of paddy fields, mangroves and other natural eco-systems.

The study suggested small pockets of high intensity development that can be well serviced and accessed by good quality roads.

To do this, the Government has to designate or acquire areas for high-intensity development. This will stop random spread of big buildings that now mushroom along narrow roads and remain badly serviced. These areas of high intensity development should be made highly pedestrian oriented.

Mr. Jayagopal says that property prices have been driven up by speculators. The Government should be able to check the prices or take initiatives that will check speculation.

As Kochi sets out on a new journey of prosperity, urban planners and city residents here could take a cue from the experiences of cities in Europe and America. The Toronto Pedestrian Charter is a clear example of an initiative by city residents that can articulate how they treat pedestrians.

The charter is based on the principle that “a city’s walkability is one of the most important measures of the quality of its public realm, and of its health and vitality.” ( http://www.toronto.ca/ pedestrian/)

The charter is based on the principles of accessibility, equity, health and well-being, environment sustainability, personal and community safety and community cohesion.

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