A day after announcing scrapping of the controversial BRT corridor in South-East Delhi, Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai made a pitch for an integrated planning of Delhi’s transport system and announced a full-day conference to be held on July 29 to chart out “Delhi Transport Vision”. He also said the Government may implement BRT system again, albeit with proper planning this time.
“While unveiling the Annual Budget, we had set certain guidelines for improving the transport system in Delhi. We have observed a lack of integrated planning in the transport system, which is one of the reasons for yesterday’s decision of scrapping the BRT model. We feel that if policies are implemented in a planned manner, then there would be no inconvenience either to the people, or the Government,” said Rai.
Rai added that while the existing model of BRT in Delhi has been scrapped because of lack of proper planning, his Government will however again bring a new model of BRT in Delhi with proper planning in those areas where it is practical.
With an aim to bring a modular approach to the transport system in the city, Rai said the Government wants to work in such a manner that subsequent Governments can easily add to the system without any need to disrupt the existing infrastructure. To achieve that, the Government is planning to conduct a full-day conference on July 29 where different stakeholders and experts from various fields would offer their suggestions with an aim to chart out a ‘transport vision’ for Delhi, said Rai.
“The conference to be held in two sessions will involve presentations from various experts who have worked in transport sector in different parts of the nation. We will consider various experiments — like Ahmedabad experiment — conducted in different parts of the nation. But apart from that, we will also focus on the special needs and challenges that are unique to Delhi and seek inputs on the same,” Rai added.
Delhi has its own challenges like pollution crisis and the impact on environment, large number of private vehicles, security of commuters especially women, congested areas where only small vehicles can ply and psychological challenge of bringing people away from private transport to public transport. Because of these unique challenges, we need solutions that are also unique to Delhi, he said.
Among the experts who will give presentations during the conference, include retired IAS and director of Indian School of Business OP Agarwal, India Director of WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities Madhav Pai, Professor HM Shivanand Swamy of Faculty of Planning (Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology University) and Strategy Head of Cities & Transport Amit Bhatt.