PUNE: After the
successful revamp of the Jungli Maharaj road under the Pune urban street
design, Laxmi Road is next on the cards. Considered to be one of the busiest,
Laxmi Road runs for approximately 2.25 kilometres, starting from Alka chowk to
Quarter Gate, near cantonment limits.
According to PMC officials, the work has already began on the
1.1 kilometre stretch where 2.75 metres of footpath on both sides of the road
are being constructed. The size of the previous footpath was 1.75 metres. Once
the footpaths are ready, the width of the carriageway will be 7.5 metres.
Earlier, the width used to vary between 8.2 metres and 10.5 metres.
The new design will be friendly to disabled citizens as well
as to the senior citizens. It will have tactile pavements to help the visually
disabled and also bollards to curb two-wheelers from climbing on to the
footpath. Distribution Point (DP) boxes would be shifted to other locations, so
that they don’t come in the way of pedestrians. Special railings will be
constructed which will keep the hawkers in a specific zone.
The facelift of Laxmi road is being done under Pune Municipal
Corporation’s urban street design guidelines program, a holistic activity which
is being carried out by the road department. “A total of 100 kilometres of
streets were identified in the Pune city. A total of 50 kilometres would be
developed in Phase 1 and rest in Phase 2,” said Vijay Shinde, a senior engineer
with road department.
“The width of road was less and the hawkers too were demanding
space. This was the challenge faced by the civic body,” said Vrikant
Shinde,urban designer with PMC’s urban design cell.
Shinde said that the survey of Laxmi road began in 2016 and by
February 2017, the work began for making it pedestrian-friendly. The initial
design had a particular stretch which was a completely no vehicle area but
after discussions, it was redesigned to give pedestrian-friendly shopping
experience for the customers.
“Laxmi road is the centre of the city. People need parking
space for their vehicles too,” adds Shinde.
“We have created the design following the norms set under the
‘urban street design guidelines’ to ensure that appropriate street types and
design elements are implemented to create better streets for people. This gives
an overview of various elements that go into designing streets, making them
universally accessible, and also provides standard templates for different
sizes and uses of streets.”
The objective of these guidelines is defining and initiating a
process to ensure that appropriate street types and street design elements are
implemented to create better streets to support transportation objectives for
the city considering the present and future needs.
“The streets are for all users, not only for vehicles, but
also for pedestrians and cyclists. They are great meeting and vending places
and the they must be designed for all uses they support, capturing the essence
of the surrounding locality,” informed the PMC website.
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