Hi, I’m Advait Jani and I currently work with the Institute for Transportation & Development Policy in Chennai, India. Over the last decade I’ve worked on the river and lakefront development projects in Ahmedabad with HCP Design Project & Management and street and intersection redesign projects across various cities in India with ITDP. This is where I belong. I’ve enjoyed the challenges faced over the years working on urban development projects of various scales and have always come out learning something new at the end of each experience. Here is a small sample of the projects (Completed, Ongoing and Proposed) that I’ve been working on for the last 5 years at ITDP. I hope you appreciate the work done over the years. You can access my other work over the years by following the link. https://issuu.com/advaitjani
Chennai Street Design Project The first and most serious initiative taken up by the city to bring in equity into road space in the city. The project begin in 2013 and has till date has made 40 km of streets safe and comfortable for its citizens. The project that has been well received by the people of Chennai and has been recognized in multiple sustainable development forums such as Urban Mobility India & Sustania
71 BRR
The city took up an ambitious task of redesigning 71 Bus Route Roads across the city. The main purpose of it shake off the tag off being one of the most dangerous city to walk. From capacity building, technical assistance, site supervision and designing. ITDP played a key role in guiding the city and the architects towards a successful completion of the project.
The project has created a 15km network of footpaths originating from Egmore Railway Station
Segregating the Shared fast road fromspace slow has hadimproved been the vehicle norm inspeeds. Chennai[PCO for nearly Road, Egmore] 20 years
Pedestrians backwhen theirthe fair mini share. [70ft craze Scheme Road, Footpaths were the first were to be giving sacrificed flyover struck theMahalingapuram] city in the late 90’s
Good[Besant For Parking, Walking Still good for parking, but way better for walking. NagarNot 2nd Avenue]
Myth Busted & we got a great footpath They said too.‘Indians [Besantcan’t Nagar parallel 2nd Avenue] park’.
Vs Machines The borders have been drawn. [NSC Bose People Road, George Town]
Safe Intersections Seeing is Believing. With endless discussions on what design would be best going into months & sometimes years, the best way forward was to show the city officials on ground on what works and what doesn’t. A series of trials were carried out on some of the busiest areas in the city to build confidence in the officials that good street design does not result in Traffic Jams.
Music Academy
Seven years in the making, with six of them on paper. With multiple people comes multiple opinions. The project was a complete non starter until this trial was conducted. Officials had their first taste of what is to come. The project is under construction and will be completed soon.
Yes, a HMV does not need as much space as thought earlier Change in bureaucracy meant the trial was redone again in 2017 for the new officials.
Adyar Signal & Aavin Circle One of the busiest intersection in the south part of Chennai. With the addition of the flyover, the space from pedestrians had been completely taken away. Vehicles were given a free hand on where and how to drive.
Pedestrian refuge also helped in reduce conflict intersecting vehicles Unused road space reclaimed to create a pedestrian refuge andbetween prevent wrong side driving. Vehicles forced to go around pedestrians instead of through them.
DB Road x TV Swamy Road, Coimbatore
Intersection of the two main commercial streets in Coimbatore, the public space sees large volume of pedestrians and vehicles. The road space at the intersection was reduced by nearly 30% thereby improving the safety of pedestrians and allowing for better flow of vehciles.
Reclaimed space created a safe haven for pedestrians.
Ashoka Hotel Roundabout, Chennai The only five arm roundabout in Chennai, the intersection was redesigned as single peanut roundabout. However after multiple trials, the new design was finalized. The project under construction and is expected to be completed by March 2018.
The new The design initial peanut has helped design in better was toflow streamline of vehicles traffic and and will create create a safe refuge intersection spaces forfor pedestrians all users
In the Public Realm Paper Trail The average time taken for a project to get from paper to reality is around 3 years. Here are some of the projects in the pipeline that will change the was its citizens will see their public spaces. These are a couple of projects in the city that are soon to start. The projects will add great value to the city and make the spaces more vibrant.
Chennai Central Station Area
This One square kilometer area of sees nearly 500,000 passengers, 500 Buses/Hr (Peak) and has 3 suburban train stations within it. Yet CMRL, choose to design the busiest square in the city to accommodate parking for 3000 cars while giving the giving the passengers a raw deal. ITDP & Oasis Inc. helped the city in stopping CMRL from creating this colossal disaster and correcting the mistakes to make sure the prime stakeholder wasn’t forgotten. The revised design is now under construction.
The chaos would only have worsened had CMRL been given the go ahead.
Passengers are given a raw deal once they step out of the station premises.
Parking
Central Plaza Bus/Taxi Stop
Heritage Park Magic Box
The Central Square will act as the nodal space for all passengers Segregation The square isoflarge pedestrians enoughfrom to accommodate vehicles is the the key surge to bringing in passenger a leveltraffic of sanity during intopeak the space hours
Pondy Bazaar Pedestrian Zone
Chennai’s shopping district is the place for everyone to be during the festive season. Increase in vehicular traffic over the years has meant that the space once used by shoppers is now occupied by parked vehicles. The city in 2011 came one with a draft plan to shut vehicular traffic from the street. ITDP & Oasis Inc. came up with the initial concept design & strategy on how the plan can be transferred from paper to reality. The project is in its final stage of drawings and construction will soon begin under the Smart Cities Initiative
Parked vehicles have dominated the urbanscape of this street for a long time
The new story. Carsand out, people footpaths stay The usual story. Paved roads unpaved
Just another big fat intersection for vehicles There is always room for others.
The second 2017 nailed for areceived pedestrian The design was finally put totrial testininearly September 2016 the and case was well by plaza. the citizens
Hello again. Thank you for looking through a part of my work over the last five years. I hope you have liked the variety of projects that I’ve worked on and will give me an opportunity to meet you and discuss the way forward. Looking forward to your positive reply. Regards AJ