NSC Bose Rd to transform into planned traffic stretch
Chennai:
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
If a joint report of Chennai Corporation and police administration is to be believed, the stretch of NSC Bose Road between Flower Bazaar police station and Parry's Corner and the stretch of LB Road, starting from Adyar signal junction, will soon transform into planned traffic stretches without encroachments and hawkers. Also, hotels and restaurants in the city will have to first make parking arrangements for their customers and obtain traffic clearance before commencing operations.
A submission to this effect was made to the first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice T S Sivagnanam, which is hearing a PIL filed by S Ragu of Vyasarpadi seeking end to the illegal parking menace in the city .
According to his counsel A Sirajudeen, the joint progress report says NSC Bose will sport a new look, with about `4.7 crore being alloted for developing footpath alone. Contractors have already been identified and letters of acceptance issued to them on July 6, the report said. It has identified additional parking and vendor space, it said, adding that enumerating hawkers on NSC Bose Road has been completed.
“Encroachments on roadside area on NSC Bose Road are to be removed and unauthorised structures razed for parking facilities,“ the report said.Through a July 8 drive, encroachments have been identified and yellow-painted, it said.“Shop-owners have been informed and asked to remove encroachments on their own, and if they fail to do so, it would be removed by the corporation without further intimation,“ it said.
Similar to the NSC Bose Road proposal, a development plan for LB Road too was finalised, it said. “This road, as per the CMDA master plan, is a 100 feet road, and it has already been taken up for widening.Once the widening is over, wider footpath work will be tak en up,“ it said.
Throughout the city , 353 additional parking slots would be provided along bus routes and the institute of road transport has been requested to give a feasibility report for another 93 parking slots, the report said.
Turning to eateries, the report said they had been directed to identity suitable alternate private parking places to accommodate vehicles of their customers. To curb mushrooming of unauthorised eateries in the city, obtaining an NOC from the traffic police will be made mandatory for new eatery applicants, it said.
Pedestrian platforms ease chaos at Tidel Park junction
Divya Chandrababu
Chennai:
Anyone passing by busy Tidel Park junction during peak hours is aware of the chaos caused by thousands of pedestrians dodging vehicles to cross the road.The corporation has come up with a simple intervention to keep pedestrians safe and introduce some order.
Two platforms have been constructed on either side of West Avenue Road for pedestrians to wait. Earlier, pedestrians coming out of Thiruvanmiyur MRTS station or those waiting for share autos and buses would spill on to the carriageway . This is where the road to Thiruvanmiyur bus terminus and Rajiv Gandhi Salai meet. It s also a meeting point for people moving towards Madhya Kailash, Adyar, East Coast Road, Old Mahabalipuram Road, Perungudi, Tambaram and Mahabalipuram.
The new, slightly elevated structures seem to be effective as people choose to stand there with a sense of safety .“This is a junction that has several intermodal transport facilities, yet we had no space to wait or walk,“ said Pavan Kumar, a trainee scientist who commutes from Velachery to CSIR in Taramani. “Now I can safely wait for the bus. What's more, it's shielded from the sun as the platform is right under the railway track.“
The two platforms were designed by corporation engineers and built in six months, at `25 lakh each. “We have provided ducts for various utility cables under the platform and manhole doors so even if there is any repair work, pedestrians will not be disturbed,“ an official said.
Tidel Park copes with around 13,000 PCUs (passenger car units) per hour, studies from the government and the Institute for Transporta tion and Development Policy have shown. Urban experts say that while these platforms are a good change, there is scope for development. “There is a lot of pedestrian movement here, in an Lshaped pattern,“ said ITDP senior associate Aswathy Dilip. “The footpaths need to be at least 5m wide, and we need crossings at ground level.“
