In order to handle the complex traffic management system of the national Capital where traffic snarls are reported every now and then during the day, the Delhi Traffic Police has undertaken a multi-pronged approach to deal with it, and the Delhi Government is ready with the list of 29 bottlenecks to be removed.

“There is a huge problem on roads of Delhi and commuters find it difficult to even walk…Recently, the High Court too raised this issue. Our Government has decided that all the major roads should be cleared of jam. A number of  cars illegally parked on roads have aggravated,” Delhi Transport Minister Satyender Jain said on Tuesday.

The Government has decided to decongest the roads phase wise. “In the first phase, we have identified 29 roads and within three weeks they would be cleared and later on the big roads would be decongested by PWD, MCD, Delhi Police and Traffic Police. They will work together to decongest them”, the Minister said.

The list of the roads which have been identified with encroachments included the congested stretch between Nizamuddin and Badarpur flyover on Mathura Road, Netaji Subhash Place to Madhuban Chowk on Saheed Jagat Narayan Marg, Rampura to Mundka on New Rohtak Road, CDR Chowk to petrol pump, and Dera More on Mehrauli Gurgaon road.

“The encroachments include both built up and non- built up, permanent and temporary encroachments,” said the Minister.

The Pioneer had earlier reported that the PWD, along with other agencies, including MCDs and traffic police, has studied these corridors, out of which five corridors have been chalked down as pilot projects.

The five corridors which were taken up as pilot projects  included Aurobindo Marg to Andheria Mor; Mathura Road (Neela Gumbad to Badarpur flyover); Savitri Flyover (Chirag Delhi crossing to Savitri flyover); Dhaula Kuan flyover to CGR flyover Sanjay T-point, and the Sardar Patel Marg from 11 Murti to Dhaula Kuan.

Officials of the Delhi Government told The Pioneer that the exercise would involve encroachment removal, shifting of trees, making of Foot Over Bridges (FOBs) and underpasses as per the requirements.

In the first week of May, a meeting was held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary MM Kutty, following earlier directions of lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal and also in pursuance of the Supreme Court orders. The senior officials of local bodies, Urban Development department, PWD, Delhi Traffic Police, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) attended the meeting.

Talking about the long term solutions to deal with the frequent traffic jams in the city, a senior traffic police officer said, “We have identified nearly 77 stretches which face traffic congestion. Out of these, 29 corridors witnessing bottleneck have been identified and the Delhi Traffic Police department has prepared proposals on how to ease off traffic in these congested roads.”

“We have prepared a number of proposals about building under pass bridges or roads near the arterial roads of the Ring Road and the Outer Ring Road to ease out congestion. The traffic police is undermined in terms of staff shortage yet we are working round the clock and updating about traffic jam updates on Facebook and twitter,” said a senior traffic officer.