Dedicated zone for walkers
Under the Sector 17 renovating plan, the local plaza will become a walkers’ paradise. The administration will preserve the original look of the buildings designed by Le Corbusier. It will be a traffic-free zone as no vehicle will be allowed in the Sector 17 plaza. Vehicles will be parked at designated parking lots outside the plaza.
Visitors will be provided with golf carts and cycles to travel from one place to another. These carts will run on dedicated tracks for seamless movement within the plaza. The cycle tracks and pedestrians’ path will connect Sector 17 and the Capital Complex.
Transport corporation on the anvil
The UT administration has proposed the formation of Greater Chandigarh Transport Corporation to ease traffic congestion in Chandigarh, Mohali, and Panchkula. Work will begin with identifying areas for cooperation. The stakeholders will decide the best mass rapid transport option for the three cities for which a budget of Rs 100 crore is allocated. The three governments and the Centre will share the burden of the cost. The proposal to create the corporation is likely to be discussed during the meeting of the Interstate Council of North Zone on September 3.
Currently, Mohali, Panchkula and Chandigarh have different transport agencies, which lack cohesion and instead of supplementing each other’s effort often work at cross purposes.
On spot payment of traffic fines
The Chandigarh Traffic police will soon introduce on-the-spot payment of fine for compoundable offences like helmetless riding and wrong parking. The traffic police also plans to introduce e-payment of fine for traffic violation information slip challans, which are sent to the postal address of traffic violators. Twenty-five e-challaning devices are already present with the force. These devices can produce the history of challans pertaining to the offending vehicles along with payment status, people in the know said.
Water ATMs at 20 locations
Water ATM facility will be started at 20 prime locations via a PPP mode under the Chandigarh Smart City Limited Project. For 250ml and 1 litre of water, the kiosks will be charged Rs 2 and Rs 5.
About 20 companies have submitted their expression of interest with some of them even proposing to provide ATM cards for this purpose. Tenders will be floated soon.
Water vending machine with in-built RD water purifier and chiller and AC/grid will be put up at a battery-operated vehicle.
These water ATMs) will be put up at Sukhna Lake, Sector 17 plaza, Rock Garden, Sector 11, near PGI, Panjab University, Sector 43 and Sector 17, bus stops and other crowded areas.