Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday directed the officials of the ‘Public Works Department’ (PWD) to remove all obstacles under the pilot project to redesign the seven identified roads of Delhi along the lines of European cities at the earliest.

The Chief Minister said the process of appointing a consultant for the redesigning of roads is in the final stage and the PWD should complete the appointment process soon.

The direction came in a review meeting convened by the Chief Minister with PWD officials on the ongoing road redesigning project in Delhi along the lines of European cities.

The project will follow the Build–Operate–Transfer (BOT) model. The constitution company will have the responsibility to maintain the road for 15 years. The deadline for redesigning the first seven roads has been extended till March 2021 due to COVID-19. The earlier deadline was December 2020.

The Delhi government is working to redesign the 100 feet wide and 500 km long roads of the national capital on the lines of European cities. Kejriwal has envisaged the project to develop the roads of the national capital similar to any developed country in the world.

Kejriwal approved the project of redesigning some of the roads falling under the jurisdiction of PWD in November 2019. Under the pilot project, the Delhi government has decided to redesign 100 feet wide and 500 kilometers on the lines of European cities.

The chief minister had recently redeveloped the Chandni chowk road as a pilot project, extending the scheme to 100 feet wide and about 500 km long road in Delhi. The development of these roads will be on the lines of built-operate-transfer (BOT) and the construction company will take care of the maintenance for 15 years.

“People face issues because there are bottleneck roads, which create the problem of traffic congestion at various locations in the city. The wide roads in many parts of Delhi differently turn into a narrow road, and then back into a wide road after a few km, which creates a bottleneck situation and heavy traffic at particular locations. The priority will be removing those bottlenecks first, for a smooth flow of traffic and an organized lane system,” the government said in a statement.

“The second goal would be to increase the efficiency of the existing space of the roads in the city so that spaces are best utilized as per their abilities. There will be measured and planned spaces for vehicles, non-motorized vehicles, footpaths, and side-lanes. The footpaths will be widely mapped to an average of 10 feet for the convenience of the pedestrians. These footpaths will be redesigned and reconstructed as per a standard height for the convenience of the physically handicapped,” it added.

The project will help increase greenery; a re-harvesting system will be implemented in the sewer drains. There will be separate spaces for the planting of trees on the sides of the footpaths. There will be separate parking spaces for the electric vehicles and auto-rickshaws alongside the footpaths.

As per the plan, the slope of the roads, as well as the drains, will be redesigned to tackle the problem of water-logging on the roads. Rainwater harvesting structures will be built inside the drainage systems to store rainwater as groundwater.

“Not even an inch of the surface of any road or roadside will be left uncovered in order to ensure that there is no dust on the roads. Adequate grasses and shrubs will be planted on all surfaces to ensure dust control,” it said.