Highways dept to redesign 60km of Chennai streets

C Shivakumar

Chennai:

In a bid to make streets more pedestrian friendly, highways department will redesign 60km of streets in Chennai, according to sources working on the project.

“The highways department is planning to redesign 60 km of streets in Chennai under the Street Redevelopment Programme,” said Institute for Transportation and Development (ITDP) regional director Shreya Gadepalli.

Speaking to Express here on Tuesday, Shreya, whose firm is the advisor to state highways department for the project, said that the streets have been identified and the process of request for tender is on. “The consultant has yet to be appointed,” she said.

The redevelopment of the streets will be done as per the guidelines laid out by ITDP, said Shreya, adding that highways department is going through contracting process.

However, she refused to divulge further details.

She said the basic stress on redesigning the streets is to make it more pedestrian friendly and safer for them.

Meanwhile, Mark Gorton, a philanthropist for sustainable transportation and livable streets highlighted how Chennai will soon become congested and unlivable if efforts are not made to phase out automobiles to make streets people-friendly.

Citing examples of how citizen movements resulted in decongesting streets of New York, he said it is time for Chennai to wake up or else in the next few years Chennai will be too congested.

He also said he will be submitting his proposal to the state government.