The Kochi Corporation is awaiting a green signal for its master plan from the State government before kick-starting its ambitious project of drawing up Kerala’s first Local Area Plan (LAP) centred around the mass transit hub of Vyttila.
LAP has emerged as the focal point of a shift in the development paradigm proposed by the civic body. It aims at a transit-oriented development (TOD) by leveraging public transport for which the Corporation has made an initial allocation of ₹2 crore in its Budget for 2024-24.
LAPs to be prepared based on the Kochi master plan proposes a push to population density along places with formidable public transport network. TOD aims at reducing private vehicles thus making available more land for public projects.
“Once prepared, it will be Kerala’s first LAP, which has been the fulcrum of development in States like Gujarat. Initially, the idea was to confine the maiden LAP to the Vyttila division on account of the confluence of four mass transit facilities — Water Metro, Kochi metro, Vyttila hub, and the national highways. However, there was a change in the thought process not just because Vyttila was a small division,” said Mayor M. Anilkumar.
As such, an understanding has now been reached to take in the neighbouring divisions of Elamkulam, Ponnurunni, Ponnurunni East, and Vyttila Janatha, either in full or in part, which will bring in facilities like the existing and proposed sewage treatment plants and rice research centre functioning in these divisions into the mix thus making the proposed LAP more in tune with the needs of the population. This way, it will be a perfect launchpad for the long-term LAP-based development of the city, observed Mr. Anilkumar.
However, launching works for drawing up the LAP remains predicated on the Kochi Master Plan, which is before the State government. The finalised draft of the master plan signed by the Mayor, Corporation Secretary, and the Regional Town Planner was forwarded to the State government 20 days ago. It is likely to undergo a vetting by the Law department before the government makes the final notification.
The Corporation has already held initial talks with the Ahmedabad-based CEPT University, a premier institution involved in research in the field of urban development, on drawing up the LAP. The civic body may also try to rope in the expertise of similar other national and international agencies and Keralites working in similar premier institutions across the globe.
