Last year, according to traffic police records, nearly 500 pedestrians died on the city’s roads. The number of such fatal accidents is hardly surprising. With pavements fast disappearing from the face of Chennai, pedestrians are increasingly being forced to the road.

It is not as if the city didn’t have footpaths — but today they have either been gobbled up by encroachers or made inaccessible by obstacles in the form of electricity junction boxes, parked vehicles, garbage bins, shops, signboards, wires. The walker has nowhere to go.

Tiruvottiyur High Road in north Chennai or Sardar Patel Road in south Chennai is a case in point. At any time of the day, one can see hapless pedestrians trying to make their way through buses, cars and two-wheelers, putting their lives at risk. So are the Mada Streets in Mylapore, where the pedestrian has to take measured steps in the narrow stretch left between shops spilling onto the road and parked vehicles.

sidewalk construction in newyork

In other cases, their very design renders them a waste. Sample this: around 10 in the morning, the busy Thirumalai Pillai Road in T. Nagar is brimming with vehicles of all sizes and colours. An elderly lady is about to step on the footpath, but it is a little high for her. She waits for a few seconds and asks a young man to help her ‘climb’ it.

“My bank is not very far, but it is such a nightmare crossing this stretch. The pavements are too high for me. I need to climb up and down. Sometimes, I am forced to take an autorickshaw for such a short distance,” said S. Kamala, a pensioner living in the locality for over two decades. “If only the pavements were more convenient, I could comfortably walk both ways.”

Pavements in the city are unkind to all pedestrians, and senior citizens like her find them particularly inconvenient. With obstructions springing up for every few footsteps taken, Chennai’s pavements are of little use to the pedestrians.

Until a few years ago, the ‘vanishing pavement syndrome’ largely affected arterial roads, especially in commercial areas. But now, streets in residential pockets and smaller lanes have also succumbed to the problem.

Many neighbourhoods in the city are witnessing patches of green displace the footpaths. “The owners of this apartment just fenced the pavement and put some plants. It looks pretty, alright. But where do we walk,” asks V. Anand, an R.A. Puram resident.

With rows of vehicles parked along either sides of virtually every street, the gardens along road margins is the last thing they need, pedestrians note.

There can be no common template that can be used for all roads. Each road needs a studied approach to designing pavements. “Depending on the width, parking requirements and space for street vendors, a good pavement design can be evolved for each road. The Corporation should hire architects for the purpose,”read full article in The Hindu

Mr Raj Cherubal, Director-Projects of Chennai City Connect is writing a weekly column on city infrastructure in Times Property.

Metal stumps stick out from the road on my way to work – short, sharp ghosts of earlier signposts, few inches from the now re-incarnated median. I ran over one. Now a bit wiser, I drive far away from medians, wasting precious space on already-congested roads.

Two ways become a one-way without modification to footpaths, junctions; in addition, entirely different traffic patterns – traffic lights, signage, parking, planned lanes for turning vehicles, add to the exissting woes. Achieving the desired result of improved traffic flow temporarily, this leaves hapless pedestrians with no wider footpaths or safe crossings, increased chaotic and haphazard parking. Similarly, cuts on new roads, a pet Indian peeve, while inevitable in evolving urban environments, exacerbate the bitterness with lack of re-filling standards.

Beyond democratic whining, let us start afresh. World over, even tiny towns, apply standards. The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) has developed standards for Indian conditions – immense density, vendors, pedestrian safety, managed traffic and parking – with thought-through templates for disparate streets. After consultation, the Corporation of Chennai (CoC) and urban departments of Highways, an oxymoron, should adopt them.

Employ experts to design every square inch of streets. This currently non-existent practice costs a fraction of the tender and saves precious lives and incalculable headache. While at it, establish dedicated, competent traffic planning cell in CoC, with representation from traffic police. An influential official once burst out in frustration, “Let CoC rip out all decrepit pieces of existing roads and re-do them from scratch. Let the city have a world-class system of roads.” Surely citizens of Chennai will second that.

Re-working dense streets, re-locating utilities of uninterested agencies and politically-sensitive demolitions should not be underestimated. Employ project management professionals to ensure quality and timeliness. Outsource long-term maintenance, under stringent service-level agreements. Let citizens’ groups and officials jointly monitor and hold the contractor’s feet to fire.

Imagine engineered slopes for water flow into modern drains – this will save re-doing of all roads after next rains – ducts for utilities, luxurious pedestrian and bus-stop facilities, modern traffic controls, efficient junctions and controlled parking. Ostensibly extravagant, these are peanuts compared to costs inflicted by congested and unsafe streets. Let us reimagine Chennai roads while saving our already battered tyres.

First Published in Times Of India

Mr Raj Cherubal, Director-Projects of Chennai City Connect is writing a weekly column on city infrastructure in Times Property.

Read on Times Property site

WHOSE CITY IS IT ANYWAY

RAJ CHERUBAL gives us a glimpse of how successful Corporations from across the world – Cape Town and Singapore, for instance, function…

Monsoon in Singapore offers double the joy – an opportunity to get wet in the warm tropical downpour and watch every drop of it flow into the storm water drain, accurately, as engineered. While the road is barely wet, rainwater flows into nearby drains like the mighty Kaveri. This seemingly simple feat obviously requires co-ordination across myriad agencies of footpath, medians, carriage way, trees, utilities, drains, ponds and parks. Not obvious are the roles of prudent investments, robust municipal accounting, management of revenues and human resource, training, standards and processes, accurate data collection and analysis in coaxing each raindrop into those drains.

In this context, the McKinsey report on urbanisation contrasts India’s urban capital spending of $17 per person per year with China ($116) and New York ($292). Chennai will have to invest billions – $134 per capita per year – to ensure quality of life or to cajole our raindrops from submerging our city, so to speak. Further, is there capacity in the system to effectively utilise such large amounts?

The metropolitan city of Cape Town was formed in 2000 from merging seven municipalities that in turn were 1996 mergers of numerous other cities. With foresight, the City Government initiated the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) – IT project to integrate all aspects of finance, human resource, urban amenities, land and material and customer interaction in 2001. Philip Van Ryneveld, first Chief Financial Officer of post-apartheid Cape Town Government, says “ERP implementation served as a key enabler at the administrative level, permitting strategic management and integration of processes – these are not available in more fragmented systems.” Since then, the city has saved hundreds of millions of dollars while delivering equitable service at lower costs, he adds.

The Corporation of Chennai is set to expand by absorbing neighbouring Panchayats and Municipalities. Presumably, soon Chennai – with Tambaram, Avadi and others made Corporations by a political and participatory process – will constitute Metropolitan Chennai as mandated by the 74th Amendment of our Constitution. Chennai is one of the Silicon Valleys of the world. It is only appropriate that our Corporations are empowered with modern systems to tackle these additional challenges and deliver equitable services. To hasten this process, the city’s IT community should step forward. Your city needs you.

The writer is Director – Projects, Chennai City Connect, an infrastructure platform for urban stakeholders

Mr Raj Cherubal, Director-Projects of Chennai City Connect is writing a weekly column on city infrastructure in Times Property.

WOES OF FREE PARKING

RAJ CHERUBAL offers a glimpse of effective parking solutions in cities across the world…

If the Corporation of Chennai (CoC) gives out gold for free, all of us would soon decry the shortage of gold and demand for an increased supply. Parking space, a finite and precious commodity, obeys the same laws of economics – artificially price them low, watch over-use and misuse dried-up supply. Paradoxically, free parking is the enemy of adequate parking.

Prof Donald Shoup, in his book, The High Cost of Free Parking, estimates that driving around looking for parking adds to 30% of the local traffic in the US. That’s 9, 50,000 excess miles a year in just a 15-block area in Los Angeles, 38 trips around the earth or four trips to the moon. Wonder how many moon trips Chennaites make, causing deadly pollution, congestion and colossal waste of fuel.

San Francisco is implementing Shoup’s idea – performance based parking pricing. Smart meters and sensors actively monitor demand and dynamically adjust prices to ensure 85% occupancy and zero search time for someone looking for parking. Similarly, New York succeeded in reducing local congestion and increasing parking availability. Hong Kong and Tokyo price parking with time

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Mr Raj Cherubal, Director Projects of Chennai City Connect is writing a weekly column on City Infrastructure in Times Property.

Here is an excerpt of the first article:

It is time to look forward optimistically to 2011 as the year of Chennai’s transformation. Let’s start with a pilot of 100 km of Complete Street – footpaths, managed parking with pricing, well designed lanes including cycling tracks where possible, advanced traffic management on bus routes, like the city of Shanghai, for instance. Once completed, this can be extended to cover another 500 km, integrated with storm water systems and long-term maintenance contract to ensure sustainability.
While ensuring speedy completion of Metro Rail, implement a complementary Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) like in Guangzhou. Place MRTS and suburban train under Metro’s control and its common facilities, including ticketing and feeder, and ensure a complete network across metropolitan area. Facilitate well-planned denser development with great public spaces around transit hubs and corridors like in Hong Kong.
Implement Area Level Plans for all business districts to manage traffic, garbage, water, parking and transportation. Create pedestrianised spaces and watch footfalls, profits and hence tax revenue soar like in Times Square, NY. Prepare ground for congestion pricing.

In peri-urban Chennai, implement grid network of roads and transportation along with high quality urban amenities like in Singapore. Implement scientifically-developed management plans to protect and preserve Pallikaranai marsh to prevent catastrophic flooding of South Chennai and provide home to flora and fauna. Connect all parks and green areas, and the banks of a pristine Cooum, with walking and cycling trails.
Use PPP (Public Private Partnership) to develop affordable housing, on utterly underutilised, vast city lands of Housing and Slum Boards, especially along transit corridors. Cross-subsidise with dense commercial, rent-rich facilities. Further initiate housing vouchers to catalyse rentals and help low income families, like the Section 8 scheme in the US.
To build capacity in the system, devolve taxation and accountability to the Corporation of Chennai and implement complaint management systems like in Cape Town. Invite Land Transport Authority of Singapore and much admired practitioners to teach us the nitty-gritties of policy, planning and implementation. Let us build our city and look back and wonder, “How did we do it?”

click here to read the column

Following article by Mr GRK Reddy, CMD of Marg Group appeared in Times of India. Mr Reddy is member of the Executive Committee of Chennai City Connect.

Tier 2 cities are fast progressing to be 2 million population cities leading to ever increasing urbanization issues like hygiene, pollution and traffic snarls.” says Mr GRK Reddy, CMD Marg Based on urbanization trends, India will require at-least 300 new cities with a minimum population of a million each. These will come in the form of existing city upgrades as well as new city development, leading to economies of scale and 30% lesser energy consumption. This is a sign of things to come.

For more from this article published in the Times of India click here

Following article by Mr Gopal Srinivasan, CMD of TVS Capital Funds appeared in Times of India, 21 December, 2010. Mr Gopal Srinivasan is member of the Executive Committee of Chennai City Connect.

CITIZEN CHENNAI - IT IS TIME TO DREAM GLOBAL, PLAN LOCAL
Taking stock of the year gone by, prominent citizens will write for TOI to present a fresh agenda for 2011. The first in a series of year-enders has a venture capitalist unveiling a policy framework for Chennai
G O PA L S R I N I VA SA N

To paraphrase CK Prahalad as he articulated Vision for India@75, aspiration must always exceed present resources. In other words, the vision must be a big stretch, not obvious how it will be attained. Let this be the first principle for aspiring Chennai.
When some of us industry leaders initiated Chennai City Connect (CCC), our objective was to help build capacity of urban governance institutions to deliver great quality of life to Chennai’s citizens. This aspiration should be bold enough to be not constrained within current reality and geographic boundaries. Chennai has always been a magnet for creative and hardworking talent. It has also had a conducive urban environment to nurture this, be it industry, culture or arts.
For industry and commerce to flourish, which in turn fuels prosperity and resources for a flourishing civic life, we need the best and the brightest. In a highly competitive world, this means offering employees a city that is synonymous with quality of life.
While we renew our central business districts and cultural spaces within the city, let us start a planned expansion of our boundaries. In the suburbs of Chennai, let us plan and build a network of roads with world class facilities, parking management, and open public spaces. We should also plan for adequate space for hospitals, schools and other civic services, not to mention solid waste management, sewerage and water supply. In this rapidly urbanising environment we cannot underestimate the impact of the city on the region and vice versa. Chennai needs a Regional Plan Authority and related institutional structures to ensure sustainable regional expansion of our city. At the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) we coined a catchy phrase-MAP-Marakkanam, Arakkonam, Pulicat—to help visualise this. Such a regional authority would logically encompass active participation of stakeholders from the various urban and rural entities. Such a plan should catalyse protection of regional water bodies, forests and other gifts of nature while further increasing the share of protected open spaces for future generations.
All said and done, even industrial towns like Sriperumbudur are about people and life. Women and men toil so as to create a better future for their children. Hence, let us plan to transform the Sriperumbudurs’ into world class self-contained urban spaces with excellent and affordable housing for all its inhabitants, public transportation and other urban amenities around a vibrant Chennai, the hub. We will have to borrow processes and know-how from across the world. Let us remind ourselves of Prahalad’s advice to summon the boldness to innovate and create the ‘next practices’ in city planning and urban governance.

CHENNAI: There used to be a time when riding the wind on a bicycle was a highpoint in one’s childhood. But as the city developed and narrow cycle lanes gave way to concrete flyovers, many school-going children never get to experience the joy of cycling.

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CHENNAI: Over 6,200 students in 15 schools in Anna Nagar, who use bicycles, will be assured of a safe ride with the Chennai Corporation planning to create cycle track on several important roads in the area.

Roads, including the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 6th Avenues and 100 ft Road, where schools are located or lead to educational institutions would get such tracks.

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