Photo: Chennai’s Pedestrian Plaza in Pondy Bazaar, 2019
Experiential walk with key stakeholders
Old Mahabalipuram Road, Chennai Government officials were taken on a ‘walk’ to sensitise them on the woes of pedestrians and the need for better streets
Drawing Inspiration - Study Tours
Land Transport Authority (LTA), Singapore Officials from Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) on a study tour to learn about Non-Motorised Transport (NMT) best-practices
Drawing Inspiration - Study Tours
Residency road, Bangalore Officials from GCC on a study tour to learn about best-practices in street design
Building capacity - Hands-on
workshops
Greater Chennai Corporation Engineers from GCC undergoing hands-on training to understand the principles of street design.
Greater Chennai Corporation Engineers from GCC undergoing hands-on training to understand the principles of street design.
Building capacity - Hands-on
First set of streets redeveloped
Second Avenue, Besant Nagar (2013)
Wide streets, with edges encroached by parking, forced the pedestrians to walk along the carriageway in friction with fast moving traffic
Second Avenue, Besant Nagar (2014)
Space reclaimed by streamlining parking, to create wide and continuous footpath for safe pedestrian movement.
First set of streets redeveloped
Police Commissioner Office Road, Egmore (2013)
Narrow footpath with utility box and trees obstructing movement, rendering them unusable
Police Commissioner Office Road, Egmore (2014)
The footpath was widened and the utility boxes —in coordination with the electricity department— were realigned to optimise space.
Chennai adopts NMT Policy
Inspired and Informed Action
2014 - 2019
Since the adoption
of a NMT priority
Policy,
Over 150 kms of
streets have been
transformed into
complete streets
Map: Transformed streets (Colours indicate different phases)
Photos: Before (2017) & After (2018) Transformation - Raman Street, T Nagar
Building support - Public Consultation
Sivan Park, KK Nagar, Chennai Citizen groups, councillors, government officials, media houses et al. in a public consultation—where they were presented with the NMT vision for the
Building support - Public Consultation
Mylapore, Chennai (2019) Discussion between the resident welfare association representatives in Mylapore, traffic police and other stakeholders to discuss concerns and
Promoting ‘Safe roads to schools’
through community participation
Sringeri Mutt Road, Mylapore (2019) School students, residents and traffic police collectively implementing a tactical-urbanism to improve safe access to schools
2015-2019
CarFree Sundays
-launched at Elliot’s
promenade, to promote
the idea of celebrating
streets as public spaces
for walking, playing and
socialising.
Over 150 Car-free days
have been conducted so
far with the plans of
expanding it to more
locations this year.
Photo: A hands-on studio session at SAP, Anna University
Reimagining streets - Car-free Sundays
Elliot’s promenade, Besant Nagar, Chennai Car-Free Sundays - launched to promote the idea of celebrating streets as public spaces for walking, playing and socialising. Over 150 Car-free days have been conducted so far with the plans of expanding it to more locations this year.
Chennai’s First Pedestrian Plaza
Inaugurated by the
Hon’ble Chief
Minister
With the pledge, his
government will upgrade
all arterial roads as
complete streets and
create more such high
quality public spaces
throughout the city and
the state.
Public consultations at the inception
Demonstration through tactical urbanism
Building support through negotiations
Moving on to Implement
The transformation of
pedestrian plazas
Key Highlights
The transformation of
pedestrian plazas
Sectional illustration depicting the transformation in Pondy Bazaar
Before
Free shuttle service for all - priority to people
with limited mobility
Better First & Last-mile connectivity
Streamlined parking management
City-wide transformation
Chennai
Mega-streets project
Initiated
to transform 6
neighborhoods as
walking priority areas
with 110 Kms of streets
into Complete streets in
its Phase 1
RFP floated with a 3 stage
elimination system to
ensure participation of
high quality, nationally
renowned consultants
Photo: Team from GCC & CSCL at Pune interacting with PMC officials while on a study tour - Nov 2018
Chennai
● Area: 420 sq km
● Road length:
○ ~600 kms of Arterial and Sub-arterial streets
(GCC)
○ 286 kms of urban roads under other
department (HD, TNRDC) within GCC limits
● Estimated project value of ~Rs.10000 Crores
Phase 1
● Area: 70 sq km
● Road length:
○ ~110 Kms of Arterial and Sub-arterial streets
● Estimated project value of ~Rs.1500 Crores
Adyar Velachery Guindy Mylapore Nungambakkam Royapettah 68 sq.km Area
An unprecedented 16 bids received for
the preparation of RfP - Selection
Streets for People
Presented by:
Meghanath Reddy, IAS
Deputy Commissioner R&F and (i/c)Works
Greater Chennai Corporation