CHENNAI: The gradual but steady transformation that is happening on the roads of Chennai has caught the attention of the international community, with the Chennai Street Design Project being voted as one of the 100 leading sustainability solutions from across the globe for the year 2015.
The city’s street design project was selected from 1,500 projects from six continents; the top 100 were featured in Danish think tank Sustania 100 Magazine, which was launched in Paris last week. This is a welcome change, coming after years of campaign to make the roads better and safer.
According to Advait Jani, the project coordinator for Chennai, Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, through Chennai Street Design Project, the city is transforming itself from a car-centric to people-friendly metropolis.
The award is a recognition for the eight to 10 architects who designed the 26 roads, adds Advait, whose organisation provides technical advise to the Chennai Corporation.
The civic body had initiated the Street Design Project in 2012 to build high quality footpaths on all 471 bus route roads in the city. Advait says that till recently, Chennai’s footpaths were just a foot-wide paths with trees, utility boxes and bus stops obstructing pedestrian movement, forcing them to walk on the carriageway. This often leads to minor, avoidable accidents. “Now the plan is to widen it to 3.3 feet wide,” he says.
The new footpaths are designed as per the revised guidelines by the Indian Roads Congress for pedestrian facilities. These guidelines stipulate that pedestrian facilities are to be designed to ensure continuous, unhindered walking space that reduces conflicts between pedestrians and vehicles.
However, even as the award is being cheered, Raj Cherubal, director-projects for Chennai City Connect, says that the city has a long way to go. This, despite Chennai Corporation being the first to adopt a Non-Motorised Transport (NMT) Policy.
The City Corporation has set ambitious goals to build safe and continuous footpaths on 80 per cent of all streets, increase share of walking and cycling trips to over 40 per cent and eliminate pedestrian and cyclist deaths by 2018. It is not the only honour for Chennai’s urban infrastructure. It has already won several accolades, including the Best Non Motorised Transport Project award from Union Ministry of Urban Development and a special mention at Volvo Awards.
