PMC to give an artistic touch to city’s landscape
Pune would soon be turned into an aesthetically appealing city, with the decision of the Pune Municipal Corporation to appoint a panel of urban designers to beautify the city roads. This is the first time the corporation is using the service provided by urban designers for any purpose.
The authority had invited bids from designers, setting certain terms and conditions. Though about 11 applications were received for the project by the PMC, only 4 qualified for the same. As per reports, the corporation would pay about Rs.9 lakhs to the panel, for every kilometre designed by them, and about Rs.60/sq.ft., for every junction or intersection developed.
The additional city engineer informed that the move to rope in urban designers would help in providing an aesthetic look to the city roads that are at present developed haphazardly. He informed that till now, only the technical aspects were taken into consideration while developing roads and no importance was given to aesthetics.
This initiative undertaken by the PMC is similar to those adopted in cities like New Delhi and Ahmedabad. In addition to designing of roads, the panel would also design footpaths, activity places, and parking spots. Islands, which were previously removed for efficient traffic management would also be redeveloped by the urban planners, to add beauty to the city.
Street Design guidelines for Pune
Street design guidelines are being prepared by the Pune Municipal Corporation Road Department, keeping in mind the sustainability aspect of the city. They are customized as per the IRC codes, to best suit the city.
The guidelines would enable the concerned team of street designers, contractors, consultants and decision makers to understand the ideal ways of designing streets, in addition to providing them with recommendations for designs of each street element. Cross sections, which have to be referred while undertaking construction and redevelopment of any street in Pune, would also be defined through the guidelines.
The performance of any street is dependent on the co-existing elements, which are classified into the following 3 main components.
1. Mobility and Accessibility – Includes elements like carriage way, footpath, cycle track, flyovers, junctions, which help in providing mobility and access.
2. Safety and Comfort – Includes elements like street crossings, street lights, signals, medians, refuge islands etc., which ensure safety and comfort of the road.
3. Environment and Ecology – Includes elements like trees, storm water drains, utilities, garbage containers, public toilets etc., which ensure health of the street and the city.
A dedicated workforce for designing the streets and classification of the streets into different hierarchy based on planning norms and usage as mentioned above, would also be established with the guidelines.
