The Delhi Government is to begin work to dismantle the controversial 5.8 kilometer long BRT corridor from Ambedkar Nagar to Mool Chand from January 20 and it would be completed by February 20.
The agencies involved in this will work during nights only to avoid inconvenience to commuters. The PWD has also appointed a consultant to suggest road designing of the entire stretch. The consultant has invited suggestions from local residents and residents’ welfare association about the possible design and alignment of roads after BRT was dismantled.
The dismantling of the corridor — constructed in 2008 at a cost of Rs 190 crore — will entail a further expenditure of Rs 11-12 crore.
According to PWD Minister Satyendra Jain, the dismantling of BRT corridor would begin from January 20 and it would be completed by February 20 next month.
According to Minister, the work on dismantling the stretch will take place in two phases. The first phase would consist of removing obstructions, such as dividers, bus stops, etc. The second phase would cost more and take longer as it would include redesigning of junctions and installing a new signaling system.
Sources said dismantling work would take place between 11 pm and 6 am so that there was minimum, or no, impact on vehicular movement. A large component of the work is removal of bus stops and creation of a central verge that will be done using readymade barriers. The traffic police work will be largely restricted to managing the signaling once the existing system is removed.
“To maintain smooth traffic movement, the Government will also ensure that the work of dismantling BRT corridor is carried out only in nights,” Jain also said. The Minister said in the second phase, the Government will engage local residents in preparing a comprehensive plan of redesigning the roads and for which, a consultant has been appointed by the Public Works Department (PWD). He further said has already held a meeting with the representatives of RWAs on preparing the plan of comprehensive redesign of the roads.
In anticipation of the stretch being dismantled, traffic rules have ceased to exist. Moreover, the commuters are facing severe traffic jams on the stretch and the local and other those using corridor are quite upset with the Government for delaying dismantling the corridor.
There are no marshals to guide commuters, resulting in traffic hazard. The Delhi Integrated Multi-Model Transit System (DIMTS) is the project management consultant of dismantling of BRT corridor. It is noted that DIMTS was also maintaining and running the corridor since its operational. DIMTS was forced to remove marshals from the stretch as Delhi Government had not paid money to it for maintenance works on the stretch.
The Arvind Kejriwal Government had in July 21, 2015 decided to scrap the controversial Bus Rapid Transit corridor after it concurred with the general view that it was not serving the purpose it was constructed for and was, instead, leading to massive traffic jams.
After the decision, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had said the BRT corridor would be scrapped considering public demand and the kind of accidents that have happened in the past.
The BJP had also demanded scrapping of the BRT corridor and it promised to dismantle it in its vision document for the Delhi assembly polls earlier this year.