The pedestrians, who are often noticed hopping around to cross the South Delhi’s Vasant Enclave and Moti Lal Nehru Camp, would be breathing easy as the Public Works Department (PWD) has taken a decision to construct a Foot Over Bridge (FOB) at Moti Lal Nehru Camp and Rao Tula Ram (RTR) Marg on Ring Road. This stretch is infamous for traffic congestions and accidents. Also, as per the department, more than 3,000 pedestrians cross the road during the day.
According to the Delhi Traffic Police offcials, “The RTR Marg is one of the known stretches for traffic jams and the Moti Lal Nehru Camp is known for both clogging and accidents. It is good that the department is taking action to ease both congestion and travel safety for the pedestrians. Also, the Outer Ring Road is one of the accident prone zones area and FOBs were much needed in these locations.”
Also as per the traffic survey submitted to the PWD, On the RTR Marg near the petrol pump, around 1894 pedestrians during the day. Traffic density for 12 hours is 84407 vehicles. “The stretch is residential as well as pedestrians faces the problems to find the safe gap to cross the road. Also, the vehicle flow is much on this Marg and to mitigate that an FoB is needed at the earliest,” said a senior official of Delhi Traffic Police.
Also according to accident data shared by the Delhi Traffic Police, there are total 11 accident prone zones in the South-West District and around 20 zones in the southern range. A total of 103 accidents took place in the South-West District including 71 simple accidents and 32 fatal accidents in 2017.
The Moti Lal Nehru Camp, (Munirka) falls under the jurisdiction of South District and Outer Ring Road which is infamous for accidents. As per the data, in 2017, a total of 205 accidents were took place on the outer Ringh Road, out of which 137 were simple and 68 were fatal accidents. Munirka has been identified as one of the accident prone zones area by the traffic police and a total of four accident took place on this stretch, out of which two were simple and two were fatal accidents.
In a recent meeting, the PWD got the administrative and financial approval for carrying out the work for construction of FOB at both the proposed sites: Moti Lal NehruCamp and RTR marg.
Currently, there are approximately 50 subways and 73 Foot over Bridges (FOB) located in different parts of Delhi for the use of pedestrians.
The estimated budget for the Moti Lal Nehru Camp and RTR marg near petrol pump is 2.53 crore and 2.52 crores. “A proposal for the construction FOB was moved July and August, which was approved in a recently held meeting. Both the FoB’s will be constructed with staircases and lifts. The department has assigned the work to the concerned officials for completing the modalities that includes inviting tenders,” said a PWD official.
Moreover, the PWD is also set to construct around 17 FOBs in other accident prone areas across the city under the mass traffic de-congestion project to ease the movement of pedestrians, the official added.