An agreement that will facilitate the maintenance of the refurbished Broadway, one of the oldest and busiest trade centres in the city, will be signed today.
Kochi Corporation has spent Rs. 75 lakh for the modernisation of the area by including the ‘Broadway Reborn’ venture under the decentralised plan project. The civic body also proposes Rs. 90 lakh for the maintenance of the project.
The corporation is set to ink an agreement with Kerala Merchants Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday to maintain the revamped look of Broadway.
Unsurprisingly, parking has received prime attention under the beautification project.
The Kerala Merchants Chamber of Commerce is mulling over turning the existing space in front of shops into a pay-and-park facility with parking restricted to a limited period.
Parking had always been the bane of the stretch with traders irked over illegal and haphazard parking on either side of the road shooing away potential customers.
Though it is yet to be finalised, the proposal was born out of the constant complaint of traders that motorists from elsewhere, including employees of shops from nearby shopping complexes, turned Broadway into de facto parking space by parking their vehicles from morning to evening.
“The benefit of beautification has already been felt. With the construction of drainage on either side water logging has become a thing of the past. Earlier water used to enter many shops here during monsoon,” said Joseph D’Silva, a trader and joint secretary of Broadway Shop Owners Association.
