Tourism and Public Works Minister Mr. PA Mohd. Riyas receiving the draft design policy from Prof. Praveen Nahar, Director, National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad at the closing ceremony of the three-day Design Policy workshop jointly organized by the Department of Tourism and the Departments. Public Works, in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday.
Kerala today came out with a draft design policy that lays emphasis on making all tourist places in the state women, child and pedestrian friendly and to give a different touch to the state’s physical assets to enhance their utility and aesthetic appeal. proposes a set of comprehensive suggestions for ,
The draft policy prepared by the three-day design policy workshop was presented to Tourism and Public Works Minister PA Mohammad Riyas on the concluding day on Saturday.
Professor Praveen Nahar, Director, National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad presented the draft policy to the Minister. The function was presided over by the Principal Secretary, Tourism, KS Srinivas.
The draft document gives a set of best practices to be adopted while designing physical assets such as roads, bridges, streets, street furniture, signage and public spaces, which are important in enhancing the tourist experience.
Among the highlights of the draft policy are recommendations to create special tourism, heritage and ecological zones and to set up the Kerala State Culture Fund.
Other suggestions include treating autorickshaws as a product and drivers as tourism ambassadors, standardizing signs and lighting, integrating technology into communication and public spaces, creating design awareness at all levels, traditional art performance venues Special packages for, Crafts Design Center and Kerala Brands are included. For arts and crafts, mapping craft communities and centralized data management tools for tourism and public works.
Mr Rias said the draft policy would be fine-tuned with feedback from the public and implemented this year. Dr Manoj Kumar K, Managing Director, KTIL and Prof KT Raveendran, Former Dean, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi were also present at the function.
Around 200 delegates including officials and representatives from Kerala Tourism and PWD participated in the workshop.