KOCHI: The draft Master Plan for Kochi city, prepared by the Department of Town and Country Planning, Government of Kerala, will focus on the overall development of the transport sector of the city. A detailed presentation of the Master Plan was made before the Corporation Councilors here at the Council Hall the other day. The major aim of the presentation was to clear the doubts of the councilors and to introduce to them the contents of the Master Plan.“A hard copy of the Master Plan was given to each of the councilors. After studying the copy, the contents of the Master Plan will be discussed in a special council meeting that will be convened soon,” said a top Corporation official. The draft Master Plan mainly consists of development concepts, strategies, proposals and control regulations. It includes major development issues of Kochi city region, its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threat (SWOT) analysis and development concepts and strategies. The Master Plan mainly suggests various transportation proposals for the city. It says that the operational efficiency of the regional level roads, other than the NH in Kochi City Region, including the Ernakulam-Vaikom Road, Ernakulam-Muvattupuzha Road, Ernakulam-Perumbavoor Road, Fort Kochi-Chellanam Road and Tripunithura-Karimugal road are very poor. According to the Master Plan, the major reason for the inefficiency are the bottle-necks created by narrow bridges, railway crossings, poor alignment and road geometrics. A proper road network system for the Kochi City Region can be developed by substantial improvement of these roads and incorporating ring roads as links between the radial roads.The Master Plan also gives focus to the Water Transport network and suggests the introduction of goods-oriented boat services and improvement of existing canal systems. All this will substantially improve the role of waterways for cargo movement. It also suggests the development of the suburban rail network to extend the rail network to unserved areas in the city region, which will bring a considerable change in the existing transport scenario. The official said that similar presentations will be conducted for the local body authorities of the 11 surrounding Panchayaths and seven Municipalities. “These Panchayaths and Municipalities also fall in the urban agglomeration area that will be covered in the Master Plan,” he added.The area included in the Master Plan for the Kochi city region include the 74 divisions under Kochi Corporation, Municipalities- Tripunithura, Aluva, Kalamassery, Eloor, Maradu and Thrikkakkara. The list of Panchayaths include Thiruvankulam, Cheranelloor, Varappuzha, Kadamakkudy, Mulavukadu, Elamkunnappuzha, Njarackal, Kumbalam, Kumbalangi, Chellanam and Vadavukode- Puthenkurishu.
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