Kerala PWD minister PA Mohamed Riyas (File photo| EPS)
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Tourism and Public Works Minister P A Mohamed Riyas has said that the government will implement the Kerala State Design Policy in a time-bound manner after holding comprehensive deliberations on the draft policy.
The minister said the draft policy will be made available after the ongoing three-day design workshop at Craft Village at Vellar, near Kovalam, that will conclude on Saturday, by consolidating the ideas emerging from it.
“The workshop, titled ‘Design by Future’, conducted jointly by the tourism and public works departments, is the first such initiative in the country,” Riyas told reporters. It will evolve a draft design policy that factors in Kerala’s traditional design concepts while imbibing new trends and foreseeing the future needs. The policy will be applied while designing and creating public assets and also for restoring and preserving heritage structures, mainly focusing on tourism and public infrastructure, he said.
The policy will lay down the best practices to be followed while designing physical assets such as roads, bridges, streets, street furniture, signages and public spaces, which are crucial in enhancing the experience of tourists.
As part of framing the design policy, visits were conducted to all 140 assembly constituencies in the state. The policy will bring in a radical change in planning and designing. Vacant spaces under bridges will be converted into utility spaces and the lower part of bridges across rivers will also be illuminated, he said.
The minister also interacted with the experts from across the world who are taking part in the workshop.
