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The Committee , right from the beginning has been getting suggestions that the first intervention required is in bringing E-Governance to the City Government in an integrated manner so that a full- fledged ERP solution shall be in place . The initiative has scouted for such solutions and has ended up finding e-Government Foundation in Bangalore ( which is an NGO founded by Sri . Nandan Nilakeni , a doyen of IT industry in the Country ). The foundation has provided ERP solutions to more than 300 municipalities in the Country . This idea was shared during the review meeting of Officers of the Town & Country Planning Department , held by the Honourable Minister for Local Self Government , Dr . K . T . Jaleel on 31st August 2016 . The meeting has decided to take up a module ( automated intelligent solution for processing building permit applications ) on pilot basis in Kozhikode Corporation . Once the pilot project is successfully concluded the same can be rolled out state wide . I was entrusted by the meeting to make a proposal to the Government through Chief Town Planner . Discussions were undertaken with the e-Government Foundation , Kozhikode Corporation and Malabar Chamber of Commerce for formulating the proposal . The Mayor , Kozhikode Corporation has kindly consented to run the pilot project in Kozhikode Corporation . Negotiation was concluded with the foundation and Malabar Chamber of Commerce has gracefully come forward to finance the project ( a cost of approximately Rs . 50 lakhs ) and the Government or the City Corporation will have no costs involved . A proposal including all these factors was submitted to the Government through the Chief Town Planner on 16th December , 2016 . The proposal was approved by the Government vide G . O .( Ms .) No . 26 / 2017 / LSGD dated 28th January , 2017 . The project shall improve the ease of doing business to a large extent and shall contribute significantly to the egovernance initiatives of the State Government . The tripartite agreement between the Kozhikode Corporation , e-Government Foundation and Malabar Chamber of Commerce was signed on 6th February , 2017 in the august presence of Honourable Mayor of Kozhikode , Sri . Thottathil Raveendran and other elected representatives . The Kozhikode Regional Office of the Town & Country Planning Office works as the Nodal Office for the pilot project .
Traffic snarls have become the burning issue in almost all towns in the State and Kozhikode is no exemption . So naturally various attempts are made to ease out the situation . The office has undertaken the project on rationalising the routing of city buses in Kozhikode urban area under the research & development activities of the Department in collaboration with Centre for Transportation Studies , National Institute of Technology – Calicut . The work is complete and is due for publication in March 2017 . While conducting the studies for bus routing , it was felt that absence of bus bays adds a lot to the chaos and this was further added to the scope of the study . Another volume of the report on bus bays was published . The office has been constantly in touch with the Kozhikode Corporation authorities on setting up these bus bays based on this report . The Corporation has called for expression of interest for setting up 30 bus bays identified in our report in the City in PPP mode and has got response from more than ten vendors . The vendors are expected to be finalised soon and the bus bays shall be realised in another six months . Besides , the MLA ’ s representing the urban area are also showing keen interest in implementing our report and a few bus bays shall be constructed out of MLA ’ s asset development fund .
Another project taken up as a part of research & development activities of the Department during this year is the formulation of Parking Policy for Kozhikode City . This also is another initiative for easing the traffic congestion in the City and enhances revenue to the City in a practical manner . The Policy is being formulated based on scientific study as well as thorough consultation with the City Government so that the Policy shall be adopted by the Kozhikode Corporation for implementation .
Another R & D activity just concluded by the Office though not city specific is worth mentioning . “ Trip generation Manual for Kerala ” was prepared after extensive survey , analysis and modelling in collaboration with Centre for Transportation Studies , National Institute of Technology – Calicut . The manual shall help assess the approximate trip generation characteristics of any settlement . This shall reduce the cost incurred by the Department as well as other agencies involved and academic institutions