Model roads to come up in Gurugram’s residential areas

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) is planning to redesign streets in South City-1 and Sushant Lok-1 as “model streets”, by freeing footpaths of encroachments,

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) is planning to redesign streets in South City-1 and Sushant Lok-1 as “model streets”, by freeing footpaths of encroachments, introducing no-vehicle zones, and increasing speed calming measures, said officials on Wednesday.

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MCG officials said that streets in both areas are mostly residential, but due to a high volume of vehicles accessing them, pedestrians and cyclists find it unsafe to navigate.

“The redesigning process has started. We want to make streets in both areas as model streets, which will serve as examples of how streets should be designed in Gurugram. Such models can then be replicated across different parts of the city,” said Raman Sharma, chief engineer, MCG.

The civic body will carry out the redesigning project in association with the World Resources Institute (WRI) and Raahgiri foundation.

In South City-1, four streets are being redesigned to ensure the safe passage of students studying in four schools in the area, along with those residing in residential complexes in the vicinity.

“Currently, the streets within South City-1 have limited speed calming measures, due to which vehicles tend to travel at a high speed. Further, the existing footpaths are either badly damaged or heavily encroached upon, resulting in pedestrians walking on the main carriageway. As per our design plan, we want to reclaim footpaths by removing all encroachments, build new footpaths where they are either broken or missing altogether, and introduce speed breakers before residential, commercial areas,” said Sarika Panda Bhatt, co-founder of Raahgiri foundation.

With regards to the four schools in the area, Bhatt said that the streets outside the schools have to be redesigned on the lines of a model school zone set up by the Raahgiri foundation, MCG, and WRI in Sector 47 earlier this week, as per the proposal. On Sunday, using traffic cones, paints and signage, the agency redesigned a 200-metre stretch outside Mount Olympus School in such a manner that dedicated waiting areas, pick and drop-off points were created along with crossing points.

WRI and Raahigiri foundation have done a technical study on the four streets in South City-1 and submitted their report to the MCG for perusal.

In Sushant Lok-1, MCG officials said they are planning on redesigning the 2.5-kilometre service lane between Vyapar Kendra and Gold Souk Mall in such a manner that vehicles can no longer be parked in the residential lane and that it is not used as an alternate route. Commuters extensively use this residential stretch, leading towards St Thomas Marg/Golf Course Road, instead of the main carriageway as it helps them avoid four traffic signals and save time.

“The street will be designed with facilities for all road users including the management of parking around market areas, which is currently the biggest reason for the chaos on Sushant Lok-1 streets. The infrastructure change would benefit residential areas to access the market by foot or cycling safely with their families,” said Priyanka Sulkhlan, manager, cities and transport, WRI India.

MCG officials privy to the matter said that bollards would be placed on all entry and exit points of the 2.5-kilometre service lane to prevent vehicles from entering the lane, while residents of Sushant Lok 1 could access the same through alternate routes within the colony.