Work on non-motorised corridor begins in Kovai in Coimbatore

COIMBATORE: Works for the long-awaited NMT (Non-Motorised Transport) Corridor began on Friday, with officials of Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) inaugurating the project near the Town Hall. The NMT corridor is a pedestrian plaza where people can walk or use a bicycle.

The CCMC had proposed the NMT corridor as part of efforts to prevent accidents caused by motor vehicles and to make roads pedestrian-friendly. It roped in a German agency in 2019 to implement the project under the Smart City Projects mission.

After conducting multiple trials over the past few years, the CCMC has finalised four routes for implementing the project. These include Raja Street, Big Bazaar Street, Cross-Cut Road and Nanjappa Road. Sources in the Smart City mission said the routes have been selected based on pedestrian movement, and flow of traffic.

“In Big Bazaar Street, the NMT corridor will be laid from the Koniyamman Temple in Town Hall to the Athar Jamaath Masjid in the Oppanakara Street junction for which the works have begun. In Raja Street, the corridor will cover 375 metres from Five Corner to St.Michael’s School. Two routes are to be established in Gandhipuram - one starts from the Nanjappa Road junction to the Lakshmi Complex covering a length of 440 metres. And the other route will be laid for about 800 metres from the Cross Cut road to the Power House junction,” sources added.

In order to ease pedestrian movement and bar other vehicles from entering the NMT corridor, the CCMC will install bollards, signboards, and reflectors and paint the pathway with the necessary markings to make it stand out from the road. Also, CCMC will be asking all other departments to complete the water pipeline installation and other UGD works before starting the NMT project in order to avoid digging the roads, said the sources.

Speaking to TNIE, a senior official of the Smart City Projects mission said the project will be carried out at an estimated cost of Rs 7.5 crore under the Smart City Projects mission in about four packages.  “The delay was inevitable as a few of the design concepts were in the finalising stages. The project will be finished in 120 to 150 days” the official added.