Kochi Corporation set to draw up Kerala’s first Local Area Plan

Kochi Corporation plans State's first Local Area Plan (LAP) to promote Transit Oriented Development (TOD) around mass transportation facilities.

The Kochi Corporation is set to embark on drawing up the State’s first-ever Local Area Plan (LAP).

The maiden LAP has been proposed covering select areas of four divisions — 49, 51, 52, and 53 — based on the Corporation’s master plan for the city that was notified by the State government last year. These divisions have been selected since they account for the convergence of mass transportation facilities like Kochi Metro, Water Metro, mobility hub, and a flyover.

The idea behind the maiden LAP is to propagate the concept of Transit Oriented Development (TOD) in areas through which the metro passes. TOD aims at reducing private vehicles as much as possible, making available more land for public projects. The LAP will be drawn up in compliance with the Corporation’s master plan meant to guide the city’s development trajectory for the next 20 years.

“The TOD-driven LAP model proposes to promote development and ‘densify’ population around Vytilla with a focus on public transport facilities, pedestrian facilities, public playgrounds, etc. Preparing the LAP, which is a universally accepted development and planning tool, is a mammoth task and may take anywhere between eight months to a year,” said Mayor M. Anilkumar.

As an initial step, a special committee has been formed at the Corporation level, and consultations have been held. The base map for the proposed LAP will be prepared through a survey using drones. The proposed drone survey and socio-financial survey will begin by the second week of February.

The LAP will be drawn up by the civic body’s planning department, headed by the senior town planner, with the assistance of experts from the Ahmedabad-based CEPT University. In the next phase, an LAP is proposed for Palluruthy.

“Notifying the LAP will facilitate an ideal residential ecosystem for the area concerned and, by extension, will attract natural investments. Development and construction activities in areas with a notified LAP will have to comply with its larger contours. While the best-case scenario is to have LAPs for all 74 divisions of the Corporation, a city the size of Kochi could at least have about five to six LAPs around select zones,” said Mr. Anilkumar.