KOZHIKODE: The regional town and country planning department has proposed some 250 bus bays along seven major roads in the city to ease the traffic. A study conducted in association with National Institute of Technology (NIT) Kozhikode Centre for Transportation Studies found that 77 percent of the traffic congestion happens due to the indiscriminate stopping of buses on roads to take passengers blocking entire lane.
It has distributed the report to the corporators and other officials concerned to study and give suggestions, which is expected to guide future developmental projects. The study is part of the research and development project on bus routeing for the urban area. The NIT studied seven major roads originating from the city, which form its primary transport network.
The study says at present the city has a limited number of stops with bus bays whereas the scopes for improvement are high making use of land which can be procured giving development incentives. It proposes three types of bus-bays based on the available area. Regional town planner K. V. Abdul Malik said the report would help the implementing agencies.
“The basic idea was to identify the possible places that the municipal corporation, Pratheeksha Mission of PWD and City Road Improvement Scheme (CRIS) can use,” he told DC. Mayor Thottathil Raveendran said the civic body would discuss the study report in detail and give suggestions if any before taking it up. “It would help us better develop the city,” he said.
Effective Bus Route Network for Kozhikode
Effective Bus Route Network for Kozhikode is a study taken up by Regional Town & Country Planning office in 2015. The major areas of study included planning of a scientifically designed bus route network, the introduction of unique bus numbering system, probing possibilities of introducing intermittent rapid bus transport system and identification of bus bays on the main routes.
Report on routes soon
The Regional Town and Country Planning Office will publish a report on ‘improving city traffic by identifying new bus routes’ in a month. The report has been prepared by the Centre for Transportation Research of the National Institute of Technology-Calicut (NIT-C), based on the collection of a year’s data conducted by the Planning Office. This is the first initiative of the Regional Town and Country Planning Office in collaboration with the NIT.
The study is expected to help the district administration and road transport authority to fix new routes according to the need and also to amend the restrictions on the number of permits for buses and autos. The study would also help the police for effective traffic control and to plot diversions during any emergency.
Though the city is growing rapidly, the public transport system is still weak in many places which are well inside the city’s limits. Many of the newly-developed areas are devoid of bus routes even though there are good roads. For the last 24 years, the government has not reviewed the number of permits allotted to the City. The report will be submitted to the government and road transport authority for further action.
