@VenugopalAV
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Cities | Cricket | Cycling
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Joined June 2009
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Finally got a chance to visit Chandigarh and here is a glimpse of this beautiful city! I'm sure there is much more for me to unravel and looking forward to it @ChandigarhSmart @itdpindia #cycles4change – at Mylapore Tiruvallike, India
The Greater Chennai Corporation @chennaicorp received the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) Award of Excellence in Urban Transport under the category "City with the Best Non-Motorised Transport System". The award was presented by Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs, Shri Manohar Lal, at the valedictory session of the Urban Mobility India (UMI) Conference 2026 in Bhubaneswar on 24 October 2026. The award recognises Chennai's Complete Streets and Integrated NMT Neighbourhood Development Programme, which brings together the Khader Nawaz Khan (KNK) Road pedestrian-priority high street, a citywide footpath network, Safe Routes to School (SRTS), dedicated budgets for walking, and the Chennai Metropolitan Area Parking Policy 2025.
When cities across the country have been struggling to prioritise NMT works except a few, this award certainly is a recognition of some things done right and the intent.
The award must be a starting point, not a finish line. For most Chennaiites, the daily walk still looks nothing like KNK Road. Progress on the ground has also been slow.
To match the award with results on every street, Chennai needs to:
1. Fast-track the 200 km footpath and SRTS works with public timelines and quarterly progress updates.
2. Sustain dedicated annual budgets for walking and cycling, beyond one-time allocations.
3. Keep footpaths clear through parking management and consistent enforcement against encroachment.
4. Maintain what is built, with clear responsibility for upkeep and utility coordination so new footpaths are not dug up.
Video on KNK and peoples reflections: youtu.be/itdyuzwX9go?si=I73B…
@CMOTamilnadu @UpdatesChennai @reclaimchennai @TN_Streets @omjasvinMD @NirupamaViswa @AishRavi64 @bengawalk @the_cycledad @kumarmanish9
Eight months on, an impact assessment by ITDP India shows:
• Footfall has doubled: evening peak pedestrian counts rose from about 350 to 750 per hour.
• Safer for everyone: 99.2% of users feel safe from traffic and crime; 81% consider the street safe for an 8-year-old to use unaccompanied; 90% of women users find it safe at night.
• More walking, fewer emissions: 93.4% of returning users walk on the street more than before. 17.6% of respondents shifted their primary travel mode, cutting the panel's commute-related CO₂ emissions by 15.2%.
• Good for business: six new businesses have opened, two of them citing the street improvements as the reason. Commercial rents have risen 95.69% and residential rents 71.31% over the pre-project baseline.
• People want more: 83% of users want similar streets in their own neighbourhood.
What if every neighborhood and every neighborhood in the state had walkable streets?
If 150 to 200Cr per flyovers to fix short term congestion can be prioritised...the same can create over 150km of streets. Let's prioritise pls!
@CMOTamilnadu @MawsTamilNadu @tnmaws
Venugopal AV retweeted
Watching Sanju Samson go big is like watching Superstar Rajinikanth in a packed theatre! 🔥 Every six, a roar. Absolute mass madness! 💥🏏 #NZvIND
Venugopal AV retweeted
Bengaluru citizens under the banner of @deardk_blr will form human chains on Oct 11 at 11am at Indiranagar SV Metro-KFC Signal & Jayanagar Rose Garden Park to oppose B-SMILE's elevated corridor projects.
They demand tender cancellation, sustainable mobility funding & B-SMILE’s replacement with BMLTA, citing tree loss, congestion & park destruction.
Venugopal AV retweeted
NEW VIDEO - All the elevated corridors and why we deserve better
youtu.be/ya48BXvse8k
Nearly 67% of all women who commuted relied on walking or buses or public transport. Good expected insights from the first National Household Transport Survey. Data continues to exist, hope prioritisation, budget allocation and implementation follows
share.google/NCH6wkN2jPiSyem…
This gives hope for those who have been advocating for pedestrian infrastructure! CM announcement
Rs 275 crore: Integrated urban development programme covering modern streets, pedestrian infrastructure, school safety routes and traffic island improvements across Chennai and other corporations.
1. Rs 110 crore: In Chennai, 35km of modern streets and footpaths across 45 sq km, 15km of safe access routes around schools and improvements to 105 traffic islands.
2. Rs 165 crore: Similar modern street, school safety and traffic island improvement works in other corporations.
What's a highlight is the scale-up in works across TN cities beyond Chennai.
@reclaimchennai @UpdatesChennai @TN_Streets
Mobility and Pedestrian priority projects reflected in GCCs State Budget Announcement predominantly and in the CMIUDM outline. The draft guidelines documents of the 11 missions were comprehensive and hope it gets published externally soon.
Document link of MAWS grant note:cms.tn.gov.in/cms_migrated/d…
Andhra Pradesh Cabinet approves pedestrian safety policy! This is a great news
Looking forward to the guidelines mentioned. Can other States follow this momentum?
@CMOTamilnadu
dtnext.in/news/national/andh…
Venugopal AV retweeted
கோயம்புத்தூர் மாநகராட்சி, மேற்கு மண்டலம், ஆர்.எஸ்.புரம் மாநகராட்சி கலையரங்கத்தில் அமைந்துள்ள ஒருங்கிணைந்த கட்டளை மற்றும் கட்டுப்பாட்டு மையத்தில் (ICCC), ITDP இந்தியா சார்பில், முழுமையான சாலைகள் (Complete Streets), வாகன நிறுத்துமிட மேலாண்மை கோட்பாடுகள் மற்றும் நிறுவன ரீதியான சீர்திருத்தங்கள் குறித்த ஒருநாள் திறன் மேம்பாட்டு பயிலரங்கு மாநகராட்சி ஆணையாளர் திரு. கட்டா ரவி தேஜா இ.ஆ.ப., அவர்களின் தலைமையில் நடைபெற்றது. இப்பயிலரங்கில் மாநகராட்சி பொறியாளர்கள், TANGEDCO, தமிழ்நாடு நெடுஞ்சாலைத்துறை, DTCP, வருவாய்த்துறை, RTO, போக்குவரத்து காவல்துறை உள்ளிட்ட பல்வேறு துறைகளைச் சேர்ந்த அலுவலர்கள் மற்றும் பங்குதாரர்கள் கலந்து கொண்டனர். 07.08.2026.
#Coimbatore
#CoimbatoreCorporation
#ICCC
#CompleteStreets
#ParkingManagement
#UrbanMobility
#CapacityBuilding
#ITDPIndia
@ITDPIndia @MawsTamilNadu @TNDIPRNEWS
Venugopal AV retweeted
Chief minister C Joseph Vijay’s MAWS department gives a renewed push to restore Cooum and Adyar rivers.
The govt will initiate a detailed project report worth Rs 25 crores for both the rivers, where it will identify flood plains, where sewage treatment plants will come, relocations required and such.
In Cooum, NHAI is carrying out Port-Maduravoyal corridor. The DPR will be ready by the time work will be finished, said officials, and it will account for widening of river wherever NHAI pillars are coming up.
Works will happen in simultaneous packages across the river stretch, say officials.
Venugopal AV retweeted
Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department – Budget 2026-27 Highlights
₹29,863 crore allocated for the Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department.
₹2,117 crore allocated for the Chief Minister’s Integrated Urban Development Mission.
Greater Chennai Corporation’s Intelligent Transport Management System (ITMS) is in the final stage.
A street redesign project with smart parking at 20 locations and road restructuring in the Ambattur and Guindy industrial estates will be taken up.
Blue-green infrastructure and flood mitigation works will be undertaken around Chennai’s water bodies.
The ₹3,108-crore Ring Main Pipeline connecting Chennai’s drinking water sources and distribution stations will be completed by 2030-31.
People-friendly streets will be developed in all municipal corporations across the state.
Global tenders will be invited for the restoration of the Cooum and Adyar rivers.
Glad to see the cooum revamp idea taken up with substantial budget allocation this budget! Hope a good sustainable design takes shape.
Experimenting with AI on what urban spaces could look like! Let's get some political leaders inspired! @chennaicorp @streetfrontier @NammaChennai_ @UpdatesChennai @vindvr @omjasvinMD
Venugopal AV retweeted
Tamil Nadu Budget FY 2026-27 | Another smart parking plan for Chennai. Will this one finally ease congestion?
According to the Budget presented by Finance Minister N.Marie Wilson on August 5, 2026: To improve urban transport, the Intelligent Transport Management System of Greater Chennai Corporation, developed in coordination with the Chennai City Police and the Metropolitan Transport Corporation, is in its final stage of implementation.
A comprehensive street redesign and urban mobility project will be implemented, with key emphasis on pedestrian infrastructure, accessibility for all, and urban design enhancements, including smart parking management at 20 locations and the restructuring of roads in the Ambattur and Guindy industrial estates.
Notably in December 2025, as per State's Comprehensive Mobility plan for 2023-2048, parking systems across 36 locations in Tamil Nadu were planned.
📷: itdp.in/wp-content/uploads/2…
But, for many years, Chennaiites have been introduced to many parking systems, but congestion on roads prevail. Here is the timeline of few of the projects launched in the last 15 years: xitter.cf/AishRavi64/status/2027…
@THChennai @the_hindu
For years, Chennaiites keep getting new parking “solutions” that cost crores — meters, multilevel lots & now smart parking. But, the roads? Still clogged. Here is a timeline of the prominent measures announced by the Greater Chennai Corporation:
public.flourish.studio/visua…
Read more: thehindu.com/news/cities/che…
In 2008, after poor revenue from 104 Corporation parking lots, the Chennai Corporation proposed installing parking meters every 100 metres to regulate and monetise curbside parking. In 2010, meters were rolled out in select stretches of Mylapore, T. Nagar and Taramani.
This was expected to be installed in nine more locations, but all meters were removed by next couple of years. "This was due to road and pavement relaying process. Also the State government regime shifted from one political party to another, so they were dropped," a senior GCC official said.
Then, in 2011, the civic body announced multilevel parking facilities in every zone. The proposal resurfaced in 2016 under the Mega City Project, when a parking lot was planned in T.Nagar.
Further, another multilevel facility in T. Nagar was planned and a ₹22-crore feasibility study was done in 2015, only for the project to be dropped later.
In 2019, the State announced a ₹2,000-crore plan to build multilevel parking facilities at 101 locations, of which 35 were finalised, but land acquisition constraints slowed implementation. Later, only two major facilities — at Wallace Garden and T. Nagar — were done.
Smart solutions
Back in 2014, the Corporation also announced a tie-up with Google, enabling motorists in neighbourhoods such as Adyar, Teynampet, Kodambakkam, Anna Nagar and Royapuram to search online for available parking lots.
Now, in 2026, the Corporation is turning to smart parking systems in 20 locations, once again projecting a technology-led fix for Chennai’s persistent parking disorder. Yet on the ground, especially in the city’s narrow and congested streets, the struggle for space remains largely unchanged.
📸: A two-lane road in Wallace Gardens close to Khader Nawaz Khan Road, with vehicles illegally parked on both sides. | Photo Credit: R. Aishwaryaa
#Chennai #News #ChennaiCorporation #KNKRoad #KhaderNawazKhanRoad #Parking
@chennaicorp @THChennai @the_hindu
What a pedestrian friendly city could look like! Ensure all streets to metro stations atleast have good high quality footpaths. Let's not wait for a GenZ driven movement asking for accountability for public infrastructure. Indian cities have done it and it's doable. Not rocket science, it just needs to become a priority.
Video by a firm called Eletus
@CMOTamilnadu @AadhavArjuna @GSBediIAS @chennaicorp @cmrlofficial
Venugopal AV retweeted
25,500 crore to save 20 minutes. Not to forget about elevated highways along the two rivers!
And this is expected to solve the congestion problem in Varanasi.
All the best.
Good to see KNK Chennai mentioned as a good example! what if every neighbourhood in every TN city has more such streets as public spaces with functional footpath around it
@reclaimchennai @UpdatesChennai
@CMOTamilnadu
youtu.be/2k_7wrxyRqI?si=epAq…
