Kochi: With Kochi having been selected as a ‘take up city’ under the European Union(EU)’s SOLUTIONS project, an expert team from the EU was in the city on Tuesday to discuss ways to bring about dynamic changes in its transport sector.
The team held discussions with Mayor Tony Chammany, town planning committee chairman, K.J Sohan and with other stakeholders like the Kochi Metro Rail Limited and city traffic police.
Coordinator of SOLUTIONS, Oliver Lah, Mr Ashish Rao Ghorpade of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiative and Mr Ranjana Menon of World Tesource Instituite EMBARQ, India , focused on key issues like traffic congestion, and inadequate parking space.
They also stressed on the need to have a proper signage system in the city, better synchronization of traffic signals, and awareness programmes for traffic police and drivers.
The team wanted to be updated on the progress made on constituting a Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority and in new water transport and road projects.
At the end of the brainstorming, the EU team is expected to prepare a master plan that will be implemented with the support of the state government and other stakeholders to improve transport in Kochi.
As many as 27 expert transport organisations from 18 countries are associated with the SOLUTIONS project. As a take-up city, Kochi will benefit through direct interaction with other cities and get technical and financial assistance from the EU to conceive and execute innovative projects in its urban transport sector.
