Advancements in 3D object detection are pivotal for the development of autonomous driving technologies, demanding high accuracy, robustness, and real-time processing capabilities. Current state-of-the-art multi-modal 3d object detection frameworks often struggle to balance these demands, particularly under the computational constraints of autonomous vehicles. This study introduces a novel 3D object detection framework that leverages a transformer-based fusion module, employing unique radial and zigzag partitioning techniques to efficiently integrate LiDAR and camera data. Our method, termed CTP-net, is designed to optimize inference speed while maintaining competitive detection accuracy. Tested on the NuScenes validation dataset, CTP-net achieves a NuScenes Detection Score (NDS) of 68.39. Notably, it demonstrates remarkable inference speeds of 8.50 FPS on an NVIDIA RTX 3060 and 20.72 FPS on a Tesla A100, indicating substantial improvements over existing methods making it a viable solution for deployment on edge devices with limited computational resources. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.