‘Pedestrian malls’ to come up at 18 spots in Chennai Metropolitan

CHENNAI: The Chennai Corporation has identified eighteen locations in various parts of the city and its suburbs for development of pedestrian malls.

Pedestrian malls are open spaces that serve as gathering and activity spaces for social, recreational and civic purposes. The malls will be designed similar to those in Hong Kong.

According to an official, “Such open spaces can be created beneath Metro stations and flyovers where large pedestrian volumes are reported throughout the day.”

The pedestrian malls proposed for the Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA) are expected to serve as one of the core elements of urban renewal. In the case of CMA, the locations where the quality of streets and public spaces have been deteriorating have been identified for the project. The corporation has already started the work to develop pedestrian facilities at T Nagar.

The identified areas where the proposed pedestrian malls would be developed are; Chennai Central, NSC Bose Road, Chinna Bazaar Road, Kasi Chetty Street, Broadway Eravalu Street, Puraswalkam, T Nagar Usman Road, Mylapore Tank Road, Pondi Bazaar, Parry’s Corner, Anna Nagar Roundtana, Muthulingam Street, west Tambaram, Vadapalani north Mada Street, Madhya Kailash, Olympia Tech Park, Kathipara Flyover, Koyambedu and Moolakadai.