Past behind it,Govt maps 15 new BRT corridors across Capital

Of these,eight projects will be handled by DIMTS,while seven will be constructed by the PWD. On Saturday,in a meeting of the Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution Control Authority — headed by Bhure Lal — the division of work between PWD and DIMTS was finalised.

Both agencies were allowed to choose the projects they wanted to work on.

While the DIMTS has already prepared the detailed project report of at least one corridor,the PWD has shortlisted eight consultants. The first stretch commissioned by the PWD will be between Narela and Azadpur. “We have called for financial and technical bids from the shortlisted consultants for this stretch. The last day to receive these bids is March 3,” said a senior PWD engineer.

The PWD is also planning to include the provision of BRT in all its upcoming road projects. For its East-West corridor project,which is still under discussion,the government has already approved the provision of BRT. Discussions are also underway to include the BRT provision in the West Delhi Outer Ring Road project between Vikaspuri and Wazirabad.

In the second phase,23 more BRT projects will be added. Some of the highlights include corridors spanning from Central Secretariat to Vasant Kunj,Delhi Gate to Central Secretariat,Moolchand to Azadpur,etc.

The Delhi Cabinet had approved the 15 new BRT corridors in November last year. RITES had suggested these corridors in a recent report,which stated: “ Phase I and II of the Delhi Metro (173 km in Delhi) and 39 km of BRT will not be adequate to cater to the growing transport demand. The mass transport system will need to be extended in Delhi on the overloaded corridors and also to nearby towns of the National Capital Region.”

The RITES report had suggested that an additional BRT network of 365.5 km be taken up for implementation by 2021 in the Capital to ease road congestion. Delhi’s vehicle count has already crossed 65 lakh; 900-1,000 new vehicles are registered every day.