CHENNAI: As the Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA) is in the process of preparing the Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) for Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA), residents' welfare associations have been requested to cooperate in household survey planned across the CMA as part of CMP preparation.

The transport authority conducted a meeting with office bearers of the residents' associations across the city, during which representatives of Systra Group explained the process of preparing the CMP and its need. CUMTA has appointed Systra Group to prepare the CMP.

"The authority explained that a household survey across the city will be conducted by visiting the houses. The officials have requested to inform the residents about the survey so that the survey can be completed without any confusion," Dayanand Krishnan of Chitlapakkam Rising said.

It may be noted that CUMTA will visit as many as 50,000 houses and seek answers from 2 lakh residents. All members of the families will be asked about their commute to work place, shopping, school and colleges. As many as 30,000 houses will be selected for survey within the present CMA of 1,189 sqkm and 20,000 houses will be selected from extended areas of CMA. The transport authority is preparing CMP for 5,904 sqkm with a horizon period of 25 years.

Apart from this, cluster study and vehicle camera-trapping methods will be conducted to understand travel patterns of the residents and preferences for commuting. Around 7 to 8 surveys have been planned for preparing the mobility plan.