The most salient feature that differentiates Kerala from rest of the country is the spatial pattern of the settlement system characterized by dispersed but interconnected, linear but densely agglomerated stretch. Practically there is no distinction between an urban area and a rural area, with co-existence of the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors in both. Hence, the settlement in Kerala does not have any distinct core, nor do the villages have any marked nodality. (Chatopadhyay, 1995). In reality village to village boundary, village to town boundary or town to town boundary appears to be more imaginary than real. Generally, an urban centre in Kerala can be identified by the presence of relatively more commercial activities specifically as corridors. Such a kind of development is generally called as the Rural-Urban Continuum development Pattern (RUC development). As a part of urban development initiatives by the Kerala State, GITPAC has evolved a novel corridor improvement program.

The development of Kerala has a trend to evolve around a particular road or a corridor which is the main cause of the ribbon development happening nowadays. So it is essential to identify corridors having a common or mixed land use and address issues regarding the corridor for a more beneficial development. To make the idea more conspicuous, three projects, namely Kanhangadu, Nilambur and Tirur will be taken as an illustration of the topic. The main town area of these three regions were framed into projects under the KSUDP’s URBAN 2020 initiative and are aimed to demonstrate an exemplary form of development along such corridor of the towns.

The towns’ main business and acitivity centre itself is located along the corridor in the form of commercial, civic, public and institutional facilities. Spreading towards either side of the corridor are residential areas which depend on the corridor for their day-to-day requirements. Resolving the town’s issues such as congestion, uncleanliness, lack of vitality and functional deprivation would involve moves like defining a hierarchy of streets in order to set a transportation pattern for the town, reorganizing transportation routes for different categories of vehicles especially public transport and heavy goods vehicles delivering products to the market, reformation of street character of the main roads of the Town, pedestrian network along the central road and lateral connections to main centres, combining the street with adjacent open spaces to break the monotony of the commerce and amalgamate it with town plazas and open squares, appropriate zoning of parking spaces at strategic points aside the main road and freeing the street for public amenities and upgrading the general infrastructure. The corridor’s represent an activity spine with most of the requisites of a populace encompassed within the linear public realm. The presently disjointed, monotonous and lifeless setting of these towns need an upliftment in terms of form and function.

Mr. Anil Kumar AR is an urban planning post graduate from school of planning and architecture Delhi. He is basically a civil engineer. He worked as Town Planner in the Kerala Town Planning department for more than 15 years’ and also played the role of National Consult

He is now heading the Great India Tourism Planners and Consultants and his duties include Coordination of preparation of Development Plans and Master plans for Urban, Rural Development, Tourism destination development, attending technical discussions, formulation of development concepts and strategies, evolving development regulations, formulating development proposals and deciding on the components of micro and macro development infrastructure projects including designs, estimation and Project Document. He also plays a role of chief consultant in Great India Estates (GIE) which is a sister concern of Air Travel Enterprises which have multistoried projects.