The Vision 2030 seminar organised by GCDA for the last two days deliberated on 20-odd development projects aimed at converting Kochi to a global city, but one issue that could be of immediate impact to the condition of the city was on traffic and transport problems.

N.S. Srinivasan, former advisor to the State government in Transport and Transportation, in his presentation on the subject identified 16 corridors covering a total distance of about 65 km for improvement. This included main roads like Kaloor-Kadavanthra Road, Sahodaran Ayyappan Road, Goshree North end-Pachalam-Mamangalam-Pottakuzhy, Padma intersection, Banerji Road to Edappally, Vytilla-Tripunithura Road up to SN Junction and Thevara Foreshore Road from Venduruthy Bridge to New Thevara Bridge.

Out of the total road network of 1,665 km, major roads come to about 499 km and 80 per cent of the roads are less than two-lane wide, with limited right of way, he said. This, along with, substandard geometrics and poor riding quality and increasing volume of traffic, affects the free flow along the roads.

One of the key suggestions made by Mr. Srinivasan was widening of these 16 corridors, besides pitching for long-standing demands of flyovers at Vytilla, Edappally and Palarivattom intersections as well as railway overbridge at Mullassery Canal Road, Pachalam and Atlantis Junction.

At present, efforts are being made to introduce restrictive measures like parking control, one-way streets and entry control to improve the traffic situation, while the capacity of these roads remains the same. The problem with the present approach is it would not give a lasting solution to the perennial issue, he said.

One lasting solution could be dividing the city into different planning zones for effective management of crowd movement and checking further densification of the core city area. This is also a key aspect to be focussed on during the formation of the Metropolitan Authority, it was pointed out.

Another paper presented at the seminar was on the electrified suburban rail transport to cater to the demands of Kochi metropolis, by C. Raju, former general manager of Urban Transport, RITES and advisor to Konkan Railway. The concept is to link up the city to suburban towns. He identified the bottleneck section in the present railway line as the Shorunur-Thrissur section, where the traffic from Chennai/Bangalore and northern part of India from Konkan route merges.

The solution to this issue was quadrubling the section, but high cost involved in land acquisition makes it near impossible, he said. Another suggestion he made along with this was that of MEMU services in the Guruvayur-Thrissur-Kerala High Court junction. This can be introduced with three trains in the peak morning and evening hours, he said.