Projects to promote sustainable transport turn non-starters

Need to take into account citizen feedback stressed

December 09, 2019 12:18 am | Updated 12:18 am IST - COIMBATORE

Six months after it launched bicycle project in R.S. Puram, the Corporation had to take it off the roads.

Six months after it launched bicycle project in R.S. Puram, the Corporation had to take it off the roads.

Brightly painted geometrical patterns on Big Bazaar Street, near Town Hall, that greeted road users in the third week of November this year is as good as gone. So are the traffic cones, seating facilities and shades made of sarees.

The arrangement that the Coimbatore Corporation made in association with the German agency GIZ on the Street were the latest in its efforts to promote non-motorised transport (NMT).

The Corporation has not suspended the project. Only the end of the 15-day trial period has ended, assures Ranjith Parvathapuram, urban transport expert associated with the project.

During the 15 days, the Corporation and GIZ collected feedback from the road users. Based on the inputs, the latter will present a plan with two or three alternatives to the Corporation for development of the Town Hall stretch of the Street.

The project is the latest in the series of Corporation’s attempts at promoting NMT and comes after those turned out to be half-hearted or non-starters.

It started at least four years ago with the Corporation intending to develop bicycle tracks across the city. It had identified stretches in Town Hall, Singanallur, Hopes College Junction, Ramanathapuram, Race Course, R.S. Puram and on Sathyamangalam Road.

After discussions among the Corporation, a few non-governmental organisations and the State Government, nothing much happened, say Corporation sources familiar with the proposal.

Then there was another proposal to develop another set of bicycle tracks to promote cycling among the city residents. Though this project came with the support of a European country, the Corporation could not get it off the drawing board to the streets.

A couple of years ago, the Corporation began yet another NMT initiative, this time in association with a company that offered bicycles to be used by road users in and around R.S. Puram. Though the Corporation ensured that the initiative got off to a grand start with Municipal Administration Minister S.P. Velumani inaugurating the project, the Corporation could not ensure its success for various reasons, says an activist associated with the project.

One of the prime reasons was misuse of the facility by a few persons, who took away the bicycles. One or two residents arrived in cars and vehicles to take away a few bicycles and their indiscretion led to the company withdrawing its bicycles.

The other reason was that the Corporation gave the bicycles first but did not create necessary infrastructure. Without bicycle tracks, created at least temporarily, and dedicated parking space, the bicycle users had no incentive to frequently use them, says an activist working on NMT projects.

With the bicycles gone and no new player willing to enter the city, the Corporation added one more project to its kitty of half-hearted NMT attempts.

Along with the project to promote bicycling in the city, the Corporation took up another project – a bicycling corridor connecting all the water bodies. This was under the Smart Cities Mission.

The Corporation said it would have a 30-km-long corridor connecting tanks right in the western periphery of the city to Selvachinthamani Tank to Big Tank to Valangulam to Singanallur tank, near the city’s south-eastern boundary.

A major portion of this corridor was along the Trichy Road. But following reservations from the National Highways, the Corporation suspended the project and thus far there has been no progress.

In implementing the model project on D.B. Road, R.S. Puram, too the Corporation has encountered speed-breakers in that it had to bring on board Tangedco, BSNL and other telecom service providers and also civil society activists, who objected to trees being cut to widen pedestrian pathway.

After starting the project, the Corporation stopped it; went back to the drawing board redesigned the model road and then float tenders afresh to start the project. Now, this project is under implementation.

Sources familiar with the aforementioned NMT initiatives say the reasons for a few of the projects being non-starters were that the Corporation had faced objections or reservations from political parties, other government departments and activists.

For a few others, it has none to blame but itself because poor planning has been the reason. While it is one thing to make grand announcements of such projects, it is quite another to see to their implementation.

The sources that have worked with the Corporation say had it taken the concurrence of other government departments, it might not have faced the difficulty it faced for the 30-km bicycling corridor project.

Likewise, had it understood people’s needs for bicycles and taken their inputs before going ahead with launching the bicycling project in R.S. Puram, it would not have stopped it after six months.

At least in the latest initiative in Town Hall, the Corporation must ensure that citizen feedback is well accounted for. It must also see to it that it has the Coimbatore City traffic Police on board so that any new measure introduced is sustainable.

If not, it may be yet another initiative that proved temporary, they add.

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