With the second phase of odd-even scheme starting on a positive note, mainly due to holidays at the weekends, the Government is optimistic that things will improve.
However, the target focus of the scheme — reducing pollution level — has yet not been met due to several reasons, including weather conditions and lack of existing road infrastructure in Delhi. To address the issue, the Arvind Kejriwal Government is planning to speed up pending projects.
The Signature Bridge which was supposed to be completed before the Commonwealth Games in 2010 is stuck. However, the work on the bridge being constructed near Wazirabad, which will connect North Delhi and East Delhi, is going on with the Aam Aadmi Partly-led Delhi Government promising to deliver it next year. Earlier, the Government had promised to complete it this year itself.
Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Satyendar Jain had recently said the project, which has been under construction for more than a decade, will finally become operational by early 2017. Initially planned at a total cost of Rs1,131 crore, the cost has escalated to nearly Rs1,575 crore.
One of the recent projects named after Rao Tula Ram (RTR) flyover in South Delhi was supposed to be completed by the end of this year. But the RTR flyover may miss the deadline after many hiccups slowed down the construction process. The PWD had blamed the Forest Department for not giving permission to fell 139 trees on RTR Marg and 177 on Benito Juarez Marg despite a request being made in 2014. However, after Delhi High Court stepped in, the Forest Department finally gave an in-principle approval for cutting trees for the parallel RTR flyover on the condition that each tree can be cut down only after PWD has planted 10 in its place.
One can assume the main focus this time must be on reducing congestion rather than pollution and congestion cannot be tackled without adding new roads, flyovers and modern road designing.
The most of the ongoing projects were started by erstwhile Sheila Dikshit Government in the past. On the other hand, the Arvind Kejriwal Government in the past one year has not initiated/announced any flyover or road projects for future to ease traffic congestion. As per estimates, around 1,400 cars are added to the roads of Delhi every day. To cater to this rise in number of private vehicles, measures like odd-even scheme need to be augmented by a simultaneous increase in road infrastructure that the Government also needs to look at. While the odd-even formula has been successful in providing temporary relief at least as far as congestion is concerned, it cannot be the sole, or the permanent, strategy to reduce corruption levels in the city. While the Government has also been pushing for public transport, which is also a welcome initiative, the expectation that the number of cars will reduce over time will be a fallacy. Because even if some people give up their cars for the noble cause of reducing pollution and better availability of public transport, there will be new cars brought to the roads with every passing day.
Ever since the Government has come to power, there have been no new tenders for new flyovers, roads, bridges etc. To add to the woes of the commuters, most of the already commissioned infrastructure projects are already delayed. However, the blame for the same needs to be shared by the earlier Government as well.
Rani Jhansi grade separator, which has been under construction for the last eight years, is still waiting to be completed. What is even more shocking is that the grade separator was first proposed in 1998 to ease traffic in Central Delhi by giving vehicles from East to North Delhi a way to by-pass the congested area. But it was ten years later in 2008 that the construction was started.
But even eight years later, the project seems nowhere near completion. The cost for the 1.6-km-long flyover from Filmistaan Cinema to St. Stephen’s Hospital has also escalated from Rs 70 crore to Rs200 crore. However, even now, only 50 per cent of the project is completed as per official records.
However, officials admitted that even after the hiccup has been removed, the delay that has already occurred may make the project overshoot the deadline.
Many other road infrastructure projects are running behind schedule and Delhi needs many more to be launched to accommodate the ever rising population of vehicles. While the odd-even scheme can temporarily ease congestion on the roads, a more permanent approach is the need of the hour. According to Delhi Statistical Hand Book 2015, total vehicle registered in Delhi touched 88,27,431 in 2014-15 as compared to 88,93,167 in 2013-14. BJP leader Vijendra Gupta said that interestingly, not a single inch road is added in the past one year in the city while 5-6 lakh vehicles have been added.
While the Delhi Government has not issued any tenders for any new projects ever since it came to power, Government sources claim that they have expedited work on the pending projects. Over the last six-seven months, Public Works Department (PWD) has opened three flyovers for public use and has claimed to complete them in much lower costs than proposed during the Sheila Dikshit regime.
It would be pertinent to mention that Deputy Chief Miniter Manish Sisodia had said in the Delhi Assembly that making flyovers or new roads or building is not development. It is also noted that erstwhile chief minister Sheila Dikshit had constructed 45 new flyovers during her 15 years tenure in Delhi. The Arvind Kejriwal Government in his second Budget has also announced any new road projects or flyovers.