Key Insights and Reflections:

The project was a good learning experience for the entire group along with an
opportunity to contribute towards the development of semi urban areas. For the
first time, we got the opportunity to work with the municipal corporation
authorities, understand the ground realities and challenges they face while
implementing sustainable solutions for the development of the community.
Mukkam is a semi urban place where the livelihoods of most of the people is
dependent on agriculture. With a large section of population migrating in Middle
East countries in search of jobs, their remittances have a large impact on their
economy. With high per capita income, most of the residents of the area have
multiple vehicles resulting in frequent traffic problems owing to the small roads
of the town. Visionary Municipal Corporation body of the town has been
relentlessly trying to address the issue of increasing traffic problems in the area.
While the problem looks trivial for now, it is going to increase exponentially in the
coming years. Through this project, we got to know the amount of planning and
coordination that is needed for implementation of such projects. While keeping in
mind the possible scenarios in the coming years, any proposed change in rules
has to be approved by a number of government authorities and bodies before
being implemented.
Devising rules is just one part of the project to be implemented at this level.
Ensuring that the people abide by these rules while understanding their
importance and significance is another part without which the project cannot be
deemed successful. We learnt that we had to come up with suggestions that
should be easy to implement keeping in mind the budget and regulatory
constraints. We got the chance to attend the traffic regulatory committee
meeting for Mukkam which included various political party leaders, media
representatives, motor driver unions etc. Some of the immediate issues were
addressed in the meeting along with discussions regarding how the proposed
solutions can be implemented. This helped us to understand the various issues
that should be considered before proposing solutions and how exactly their
implementation is carried out.
One of the problems that we faced during the project was lack of data. Though
the authorities tried their best to help us with our project, we couldnt get any
data regarding the dimensions of the roads, bus stand etc. This made it difficult
for us to come up with reliable implementable solutions. Moreover, there was no
data available for the number of auto rickshaw licenses granted in Mukkam along
with their expected number in the future. As majority of the traffic problems are
either caused by haphazard parking of vehicles or auto rickshaws, data regarding
the same would have significantly helped us to check the feasibility of the
proposed solutions and their expected effectiveness. As a result, we were able to
come up with certain generic solutions that can be implemented in the short and
long term.