New Delhi

CM inspects BRT corridor

NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Friday inspected the Bus Rapid Transit corridor entire stretch from Ambedkar Nagar to Delhi Gate along with senior Delhi Governmnt officials and planners and thereafter issued directions for removal of all hindrances along the way.

The Chief Minister, who was accompanied by Chief Secretary Rakesh Mehta, Principal Secretary to CM P.K. Tripathi, CMD of Delhi Integrated Multi Modal Transit System S.N. Sahay, Commissioner Transport R.K. Verma, Jt. Commissioner of Police S.N. Srivastava, Dinesh Mohan of IIT and other senior officers, travelled by a bus during the visit.

During the inspection, Ms Dikshit travelled by a bus. According to a release issued by her office, “while the corridor was by and large functioning properly”, it was found that “the problems were created due to weak enforcement.” It was also observed that traffic flow on the road was being hindered because of stacking of building material and parking of vehicles along with corridor.

Incidentally, while the carriageway on which the Chief Minister’s convoy travelled had very little traffic as the movement of vehicles was curbed during the inspection, on the other side there was a huge pile up of vehicles while the inspection was on.

The Chief Minister has directed the authorities to ensure that no hindrance to flow of traffic is permitted on this corridor. As already decided, she has reiterated that on the stretch from Defence Colony to Delhi Gate the bus stops should be on left side. This will help the Government in comparing the merits and demerits of having the bus lanes in the centre and on the sides of the roads.

Ms Dikshit also directed RITES, that had done a preliminary study on the BRT project before it was taken up, to devise ways and means to increase the area available for flow of traffic by squeezing space for other purposes.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu