Bhubaneswar, Nov. 24: With widening of roads promising to make the Odisha capital more spacious and beautiful, a study on walkability in six cities across India has ranked Bhubaneswar high in terms of pedestrian infrastructure.

Bhubaneswar has got 50 out of 100 points in benchmarking pedestrian infrastructure, leaving behind Chennai, Surat and Indore. However, Rajkote and Pune fared even better than Bhubaneswar.

While Pune topped with 54 points in the study, Chennai got the least points with 40. Conducted by Philippines-based Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities (CAI-Asia), the study included common parameters such as accessibility to crossings and amenities and road safety issues such as motorists’ behaviour towards pedestrians.

The report, titled “Walkability in Indian cities’’, was handed over to the authorities of the state housing and urban development department today. The studies in all six Indian cities used a three-fold approach, i.e. field survey of the existing infrastructure, pedestrians’ views on the available facilities and a study of the public transport and mobility policy of the city administration.

Civil engineering student Subhakanta Swain of the College of Engineering, Bhubaneswar, said: “Being a student of structural engineering, I strongly feel that there is a lack of proper coordination in the urban planning and public works. But, things are improving with wider roads and better footpaths. Moreover, the city bus service has made the public transport system better. However, management of the public transport system has to be streamlined as, on many occasions, agitating employees are taking the entire public utility service to ransom.’’

Housing and urban development department joint secretary Sanjeeb Kumar Mishra echoed the same lines. “There is a need for better coordination in the development process, especially when it comes to laying of major roads. Even road specialists such as the National Highways Authority of India do not think of constructing pedestrian’s pathway in the middle of the city. So, we have urged all the stakeholders such as NH Orissa, the public works department and the civic authorities to construct accompanying footpaths and drains so that the city will be a better place to live in.’’

“We have asked the CAI-Asia people to do a specific study for the heritage zone at Old Town where the Odisha tourism department and the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation are keen to have a heritage walk concept with 10 prominent monuments. The walkability study in the city was performed in a broad concept. But, if they can do something on the heritage zone then it will help us in devising better walkability concept when there are plans to include better roads, adequate parking lots and better visibility of monuments for the tourism point of view,’’ Mishra said.

Parthaa Bosu, India representative of CAI-Asia, said: “We must know the grassroot level conditions of walkability criteria in our cities. This study is to make the authorities aware on the deficiencies. Once they know their points, they will try to improve in future.’’