Fixing bus movement, bottlenecks: Dhaula Kuan to get a major facelift by this festive season

The reason for the characteristic traffic jams at the location, however, a senior government official said, was unregulated and ill-managed bus movement. Multiple government agencies have now been directed to confront the issue before Dussehra, which signals the beginning of the festive season and triggers an upswing in the number of commuters that utilise it.

“The Metro station at Dhaula Kuan is a major interchange point for two lines; but it has been a point of persistent congestion mainly consisting of Delhi’s own as well as interstate buses. A key reason is that Rajasthan-bound buses tend to stop here to pick passengers, apart from city buses,” a senior government official said.

Though interstate buses from Rajasthan are supposed to allow passengers to alight at Bikaner House, Dhaula Kuan is preferred by them given better connectivity due to the presence of the metro and buses operated by the Delhi government, according to the official.

“The current arrangement does not have proper bus lanes even though there are three bus queue shelters on the slip road. L-G VK Saxena has given instructions to create a framework for seamless bus movement and hassle-free passenger pick-ups by creating additional lanes, widening existing lanes and putting proper markings for bus bays and bus lanes in place,” the official also said.

In addition to travelling through the route to the airport and back, hours after he had taken over as L-G, Saxena has visited the spot several times over the last year; two of these visits were this month.

According to government sources, Saxena had, the last time he went to the location, pointed out the presence of bottlenecks and sought action against other issues contributing to congestion in the area.

As a result, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), along with teams of IIT-Delhi, Public Works Department (PWD) and the Transport department, have begun an exercise to streamline the movement of buses at Dhaula Kuan.

“Two dedicated bus lanes for interstate buses and bus box markings will be put in place at the stretch. In addition, two dedicated bus lanes for city buses in the front will be widened. Another bus lane will be created after removal of encroachment and demolition of obstruction created by a wall of DDA premises,” the official said.

“We will also make bus queue shelters, install bollards to guide bus movement and ensure lighting along metro pillars to ensure safety of passengers at night,” the official added.