Post on 27-May-2015
District Spatial Plan - Thrissur CONNECTIVITY
Department of Town & Country Planning, KeralaDepartment of Town & Country Planning, Kerala
9.1 DESCRIPTION OF HIERARCHY OF SETTLEMENTS
As per the settlement analysis, it is found that
the settlements in the District can be grouped in to four
hierarchies. The future hierarchy of settlement of the
district evolved shows that Thrissur Municipal Corpo-
ration is the highest order settlement in the District.
Chalakkudy Municipal Council, Irinjalakkuda Municipal
Council, Kunnamkulam Municipal Council are the ex-
isting and Chelakkara and Mattathur are the proposed
second order settlements. Kodungallur Municipal Coun-
cil, Guruvayur Municipal Council and Grama Panchayats
of Alagappanagar, Pananchery, Venkitangu, Valappad
and Wadakkanchery are the proposed third order settle-
Fig: 9.1: Suggested hierarchy of settlements
Chapter – 9CONNECTIVITY
ments. In general there is one first order settlement, 5
second order settlements and 7 third order settlements
in the District as shown in figure 9.1.
9.2 DESCRIPTION OF HIERARCHY OF NODES
The hierarchy of a node is indicated by the ex-
tent of activity taking place in the node. The study of
hierarchy of node shows that, obviously Thrissur round
and surrounding area is the 1st order node of the Dis-
trict acting as a commercial centre serving the entire
District. Based on the service area of the existing sec-
ond order nodes, nine extra nodes are proposed as sec-
ond order for serving the entire area effectively by con-
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CONNECTIVITY District Spatial Plan - Thrissur
Department of Town & Country Planning, KeralaDepartment of Town & Country Planning, Kerala
sidering population distribution, centrality and exist-
ing status. Similarly based on the service area of the
existing third order nodes, ten extra nodes are pro-
posed as third order nodes for serving the entire area
effectively by considering population distribution, cen-
trality and existing status of the nodes. Finally there
are 20 suggested second order nodes and 43 suggested
third order nodes. The suggested hierarchy of nodes is
shown in fig 9.2.
Fig: 9.2: Suggested hierarchy of nodes
9.3 EXISTING NETWORK
The roads in Thrissur district are considered as
the main connecting link between northern and south-
ern part of state. In most of traffic junctions the avail-
able road space is encroached upon for non transport
purposes. The major roads in Thrissur were former foot
paths. Only a few roads were properly designed. Due
to limited resources and land availability for develop-
ment, proper road standards is not still attained. Im-
provement to road project planning and designing are
essential to provide efficient road network system. Fig
9.3 shows the existing road network system.
National Highways provide inter-state and inter-
district connectivity. It is proposed to upgrade the stan-
dards of National Highways to meet future require-
ments by providing a Right of Way of 45 meters, with 4-
line carriage way of 3.75 meters wide lanes and service
roads of 3.75 meters each.
The existing National Highways in the district are:
1. 60 Km. of Kanyakumari – Salem NH-47
from Vaniyampara to Karukutty
2. 64.562 Km. NH- 17 from Palapetty to
Moothakunnam and kodungallur Bye-Pass 3.75 Km.
Under NHAI, Fourlaning of NH-47 from Mannuthy to
Karukutty is in progress and will be completed by 2011.
Fourlaning of balance portion in the district from
Mannuthy to Vaniyampara is being taken up by NHAI.
Also Alignment of Fourlaning of NH-17 from
Kottappuram to Chettuva has been approved by NHAI
and land acquisition is in progress.
Thrissur Junction is one of busiest and important
railway junctions in South India, connecting Thrissur city
with the rest of Kerala and India. It lies in the Shoranur-
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District Spatial Plan - Thrissur CONNECTIVITY
Department of Town & Country Planning, KeralaDepartment of Town & Country Planning, Kerala
Cochin Harbour section of Trivandrum division. Thrissur
Railway Station is operated by the Chennai-headquar-
tered Southern Railways of the Indian Railways. The
railway station of Thrissur lies on the main railway line
that connects Kerala with the rest of India. Hence,
Thrissur Railway Station is an important gateway to
Kerala. It is the halting point of all express, long dis-
tance and local trains and have three platforms. The
station is located in the heart of the Thrissur city and
handles over 20,000 passengers daily.
Thrissur has a well maintained network of rail-
way tracks that connects the place to all parts of India
with much ease and convenience. As an important rail-
way station of the Southern Railways network, Thrissur
is one of the important halting stops for any train pass-
ing through the region. The local trains of Thrissur which
pass through this station cater to the local population
who prefer to travel by train from one city to another.
Regular train services are there to Cochin and Palakkad
are available from here. Thrissur also has a suburban
station at Punkunnam and Ollur, but only local passen-
ger trains and a few express trains stops here.
9.4 SUGGESTED NETWORK
The road net work should connect the higher or-
der settlements and nodes. Figure 9.4 shows the sug-
gested hierarchy of nodes and settlements together
with existing major road network. From the figure, it is
clear that most of the suggested 1st, 2nd order nodes
and suggested 1st, 2nd and 3rd order settlements are well
connected by already existing NH, SH and other district
road.
Conceptual road network is prepared based on
the existing and proposed hierarchy of settlements.
The analysis of the above map clearly reveals the
following facts.
1. The entire district depends upon the
monocentric single first order settlement ie, Thrissur
Municipal Corporation for higher order facilities.
2. Considering the service area of the first order
settlement, Thrissur Municipal Corporation shows the
clear primacy.
3. As far as the linkage between the first order
settlement and second order settlement is concerned,
Fig: 9.3: Existing road network
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CONNECTIVITY District Spatial Plan - Thrissur
Department of Town & Country Planning, KeralaDepartment of Town & Country Planning, Kerala
Fig: 9.4: Suggested hierarchies of nodes and settlements along with existing road network
there is already exist a radial pattern of roads which
support the planning concept of road network for a
settlement which is centrally located.
Incorporating the spatial distribution of settle-
ment in the District, the following conceptual road net-
work can be suggested. And it is shown in fig.9.5
Conceptual road network contains mainly five
types of proposed roads. They are as follows.
1. Ring Road
2. Radial Roads (1st order Road) – Connecting 1st
order settlement with second order settlement.
3. Loop Roads (2nd order Road) - Connecting all
2nd order settlements
4. Road connecting loop road and 3rd order
settlement (3rd order road)
5. By Pass Roads
9.5 FUTURE CONNECTIVITY
Transportation always depends upon the posi-
tion of nodes and the rank of the nodes. In Kerala sce-
nario where perfect urban – rural continuum exist,
nodes plays a crucial role in the transportation network.
Hence it is highly essential to modify the proposed road
network based on proposed hierarchy of nodes. So
modification of proposed road network based on the
hierarchy of nodes is necessary.
Based on the hierarchy of nodes, Thrissur Round
becomes the first order node. And based on the servic-
ing area of the existing second order nodes, nine extra
nodes are proposed as second order for serving the
entire area effectively by considering population dis-
tribution, centrality and existing status of the nodes
which is described above. Similarly based on the ser-
vicing area of the existing third order nodes, ten extra
nodes are proposed as third order for serving the en-
tire area effectively by considering population distri-
bution, centrality and existing status of the nodes which
is described above.
By superimposing the suggested conceptual road
network with the proposed hierarchy of nodes, it is
found that most of the proposed and existing 1st, 2nd, 3rd
order nodes are already incorporated in the proposed
Map Generated for IDDPby TCPD, Thrissur Unit
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District Spatial Plan - Thrissur CONNECTIVITY
Department of Town & Country Planning, KeralaDepartment of Town & Country Planning, Kerala
Fig: 9.5 Suggested Conceptual Road Network based on hierarchy of settlements
Fig: 9.6: Future connectivity
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CONNECTIVITY District Spatial Plan - Thrissur
Department of Town & Country Planning, KeralaDepartment of Town & Country Planning, Kerala
road network and all other proposed and existing 1st ,
2nd and 3rd order nodes are well connected by already
existing NH, SH and other district road.
Modified proposed road network contains mainly
five types of proposed roads. They are as follows.
1. Ring Road around Thrissur Municipal Corpora-
tion
2. Radial Roads (1st order Road) – Connecting 1st
order settlement with second order settlement.
3. Ring Road connecting second orders.
4. Road connecting ring road with other major
nodes.
5. By Pass Roads.
Some routes of radial roads, loop roads and by-
pass are changed by considering the hierarchy of nodes
in the modified road network. Hence there is not much
difference in the proposed conceptual road network.
And it is shown in fig.9.6.
9.6 INFERENCE
Conceptual road network based on hierarchy of
settlement has been derived and superimposed over
the existing transportation network to derive the pro-
posed road network. The proposed road network is
modified based on the spatial distribution of hierarchy
of nodes. The proposed transportation network
emerged out from the study consist of 1st order radial
roads with second order loop roads which support and
justify the transportation planning concept for a
monocentric region.
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