Urban News

The Hindu 06.01.2010

Proposals for improving safety, traffic management submitted to Mayor

Staff Reporter

— Photo: M.Karunakaran

Mayor M.Subramanian inspecting a modified helmet designed by students of Anna University at ‘Chen Safe’ in Chennai on Tuesday. CMDA Member Secretary Vikram Kapur and College of Engineering, Guindy, Dean M.Sekar are in the picture.

CHENNAI: Pointing out that the explosive growth in the number of vehicles has made it extremely difficult for Chennai Corporation to keep pace by providing adequate infrastructure, Mayor M. Subramanian said that construction work on eight flyovers at various locations in the city is currently on.

“The flyover at Perambur junction will be opened for traffic by next month. Various other facilities like the provision of a lift at the Road Over-Bridge (ROB) in Nungambakkam will be inaugurated shortly,” he said.

He was speaking on Tuesday at the valedictory session of a two-day seminar on road user safety ‘Chen Safe’ jointly organised here by the College of Engineering, Guindy, and its Alumni Association.

Admitting that there is a lack of adequate infrastructure, Mr.Subramanian added that existing facilities, including ROBs, were not being utilised. “Infrastructure facilities along with proper public participation only can provide lasting solutions. Each citizen must love the city and work for its improvement instead of just leaving it to government authorities.”

As a result of the deliberations which took place at the seminar, 12 proposals for improving safety and traffic management in the city were submitted to the Mayor.

Some of these proposals were to revive traffic engineering and management cells in Chennai Corporation and in Highways Department to look into inadequate geometry of roads, giving pedestrians priority at least in areas where their movements are high, creating a traffic management school in Anna University to train in-service personnel and to relook at the methods used to issue driving licence.

Stressing that focus must be on moving people, not vehicles, Vikram Kapur, Member-Secretary, Chennai Metropolitan Development Corporation (CMDA), said “Huge investments have been repeatedly made to cater to the needs of private motorised vehicles. We must not lose sight of the fact that 30 per cent of trips everyday across the city is by non-motorised means, which includes pedestrians and cyclists.”

While infrastructure services such as flyovers and road widening schemes must go ahead, he said, more attention has to be given to measures that make more people use public transport. “Limit the amount of road space available for private vehicles,” he said. Parking fee should be increased and a tax levied on vehicles entering busy commercial districts, he added.

He said that authorities must not lose sight of pressing concerns by trying to become a city of grandeur with flyovers, Metro rails and expressways. “A city is judged by how it treats its pedestrians, the elderly, children and the disabled.”

The Hindu 06.01.2010

‘Underground drainage a mirage’

R. Arivanantham

KRISHNAGIRI: The Rs. 32.15-crore underground drainage scheme to be implemented under the Tamil Nadu Urban Development Project III is a mirage, residents of Krishnagiri town lament.

The Government had issued an order on September 1, 2006 to begin phase I of the project covering 16 wards at a cost of Rs. 18.24 crore. Later on the proposal was revised to cover the entire 33 wards in the town at an estimated cost of Rs. 32.15 crore. The annual maintenance cost was estimated to be Rs. 71.33 lakh.

Official sources said the revised estimate had been sent to the Commissioner of Municipal Administration for his sanction. The sources told The Hindu that 0.92 acres of land in survey number 7/1 in D. Agraharam, 0.51 acres in survey number 475 in Agasipalli village and 0.84 acres in Agaram Eri in Devasmudram village were acquired for a pumping station and were handed over to the Tamilnadu Water Supply and Drainage Board (TWAD).

The project will be implemented in a two-package system - collection of sewage as package I, pumping station and two sewage treatment plants under package II.

Officials said tender for the package I was rejected for the fourth time because of the cost quoted by bidders, which was 51 per cent higher than the tender cost of Rs. 15.97 crore, to lay pipelines for about 45.045 km. They also said normally excess rate of up to 30 to 35 per cent was allowed. Because of this TWAD Board has to call for tender for the collection system for the fifth time and finalise award of the contract. A final decision in this regard will be taken at the board meeting soon, the officials said.

Under the package II, tender was finalised on November 9 for commissioning of sewage treatment plants with a capacity of 9 mld. The contract would be awarded in January and work would begin soon. The deadline for completion of the project is 18 months from the date of awarding the contract.