Now, after much deliberations a draft Master Plan has been prepared to proceed to a final Master Plan that would catalyze the development of a beautiful Trivandrum. The draft has covered almost all important aspects for development. Main objective of the Master Plan is spelt out as, to make Trivandrum city an ideal state capital.
It envisages strengthening of the economic base of the city through hi-tech enterprises. The plan aims at making the city a multi-functional one with heritage, technology, knowledge and healthcare as the main areas. The draft Master Plan highlights the importance of preservation of the rich blue-green environment of the city. It also aims at developing a closeknit urban pattern for the city through planned development. It also aims at providing high-level infrastructure and facilities through good transportation network and other basic facilities.
A very apt objective of the plan is to develop the city as a Knowledge
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Rainwater management and watershed management have to be given priority. Ponds, wetlands, streams, rivers of this region have to be restored.
Hub with state of the art facilities in the existing educational institutions and also in the institutions to come up in future. Also the Master Plan envisages development of the city as a healthcare city with state of the art facilities. The Master Plan talks about green open spaces developing green networks and developing a greenbelt defining the city limits. The goals and objectives are expected to be attained by 2031.
I am indeed disappointed that the stakeholders who are part of this city were not consulted in a meaningful way in the development of the Master Plan. It is a fact that most of the people involved in the planning are not well exposed to international city planning process. Mod- ern international norms for planning cities are not adopted in making the Master Plan. I strongly feel that international expert planners should have been consulted for this very important purpose.
It is also seen that zoning of the city should have been based on the prominent activities of the zone. Without such a study of the activities and the characters of zones, a jumble of zones are created, so that residential zones, commercial zones, and green zones are mixed-up obstructing growth and development of the region. Essentially a scientific study to assess the activities of zones should be conducted to decide zoning.
While appreciating the
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