Wardha Road

The street design project of Wardha road is a National Highway entering the city starting from South Airport Metro Station to Rahate colony T-point is 6 kilometers wide with an average ROW of 36m. The entire stretch of 6 kms sees a varied land use throughout, ranging from residential, commercial institutional to sensitive areas such as Central Jail. Moreover, the site offers an additional challenge to maintain the continuity with other infrastructure such as metro station running parallel to the stretch, flyover landings in certain parts and black spots on a few major junctions lying in the stretch.

The aim was to create a walking and cycling friendly corridor throughout the stretch so as to improve the mobility in the city while providing an equitable space distribution to all modes of transport.

We defined our objectives in order to re-organize the space and tailor it as per the context. We focused on all the blackspots and grey spots where collision of vehicles could be noticed often. We re-defined the geometry of those junctions by reorienting the dividers, reclaiming the residual space for channelizers, table top crossings for ease of pedestrians and cyclist and planned for all the road safety elements such as rumble strips and signages. Thus, reducing the probability of traffic accidents by making the junction compact and functional for both vehicles and pedestrians.

We further documented all the activities throughout the stretch to organize and plan them for optimum utilization of space. Unorganized parking on the stretch has been converted into organized parallel parking for cars, continuous footpaths and cycle tracks. Bus stops at the inner edge of the footpaths have been brought forth for user comfort. Ancillary spaces have been converted to seating areas and green buffers. Bollards have been placed at property entrances and approach roads for restricted entrance of cycles and pedestrians.

We have observed that the vehicle behavior at the junctions with compact geometry has significantly improved due to lack of residual space for wrongful overtaking. Dark spaces have been activated by developing functional public spaces using adequate lighting, seating spaces, sculptures, pergolas, fountains and necessary greenery.

Wardha road was further inaugurated by the hands of Hon. Deputy Chief Minister, Devendra Fadnavis and Hon. Minister of Road transport and Highways Mr. Nitin Gadkari on the account of welcoming G20 delegates to Nagpur. They appreciated the project and urged citizens of Nagpur to enjoy the provided infrastructure.

Wardha road now has transformed into a pedestrian safer street with continuity and safety throughout the stretch. It is the very first healthy street to be completed in Nagpur, further shaping the way for equitable and sustainable transport in the city. Wardha road has sphere headed the journey of Nagpur in developing Non-motorized Infrastructure, it has also been acknowledged and documented by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in the publication documenting the strides of Indian cities in developing healthy and livable cities by providing pedestrian and cycling friendly streets in the city.