Centre Unveils New Plan To Decongest Delhi

At a time when Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led government is pushing for more autonomy for Delhi as a state, the Centre seems to be paying more attention to decongesting the national capital. An issue that has assumed national-level significance, traffic congestion on Delhi roads is a study in poor traffic management by a national capital. To ease traffic on Delhi roads, Kejriwal had earlier implemented the odd-even road space rationing scheme twice in the capital. His government has also been planning other measures to ease traffic, but nothing seems to be yielding the desired results.

The Centre is not far behind in making its own efforts to clear Delhi roads. At a press conference on July 11, Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu announced construction of several new roads to ease traffic movement within the city. In a move that would “facilitate better traffic movement” in Delhi, the Centre plans to build a road that would connect Mahipalpur with the Indira Gandhi International airport under the National Highway-8 at the cost of Rs 188 crore, a skywalk and a foot overbridge near ITO, a flyover-cum-road-overbridge near Narela, and a 1.6-km-long grade separator at the Rani Jhansi Road. Roads near Kashmere Gate and Nigam Bodh Ghat will also be widened to ease traffic movement along these areas.

All these areas face major traffic jams during the peak hours and new roads could be the only way to recovery. The minister, however, did not speak about the timeline within which these projects would be implemented.

The Delhi Development Authority would work with the Union urban development ministry to implement these schemes, Naidu informed.

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