Harebrained project had lived for far too long
The Delhi Government's decision to scrap the Bus Rapid Transit corridor in south-east Delhi comes as a huge relief to commuters, residents and those responsible for traffic management. Ever since the corridor was inaugurated in 2008, it has been the cause of traffic snarls in an already congested area of the city, has increased commute time, sparked many cases of road rage, and also caused fatal accidents.
So much so that last year, Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi labelled the BRT stretch as highly dangerous, in his report to the lieutenant Governor. In 2013, the Central Road Research Institute also recommended dismantling the corridor, in its report prepared at the instance of the Delhi High Court. The CRRI found that, on the BRT corridor, the journey speed of all modes of transportation suffered. Bus speeds were down from 16-23kmph to 11-28kmph, two wheelers from 23-30 kmph to 11-30 kmph, and cars from 18-27 kmph to 9-26 kmph.
The public's rating of traffic management in the Ambedkarnagar-Moolchand stretch was also down. The BRT has been criticised by almost all sections of society, including those who had pushed for the project. Even former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, whose Government implemented the project, conceded in 2013, that the BRT had been a failure. Her successor, incumbent Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, listed scrapping the BRT as one of his election promises.
As traffic management experts have pointed out, the problem with the Delhi BRT was that it was not properly designed, keeping in mind traffic movements and volumes in and around that area. The exclusive bus routes took away too much space from other modes of transport, without even improving the commute time for buses. Also, bus stops in the middle of the road were a problem for passengers trying to get in or off the buses.
Notably, the BRT has succeeded in other places — in Ahmedabad, for example, it has worked quite well, possibly because the early BRT lanes were built in under-developed areas, which allowed planners to have a proper traffic grid from scratch; other tier-two cities like Surat and Indore are now following suit. Outside India, there are about 160 such corridors where high-speed buses run across town like trains (separate from the rest of the traffic). However, in Delhi — like in Pune, the first Indian city to get a BRT — there was no space for redemption. The Government also tried improving the BRT through a host of measures, including better signage, but it didn’t work.
With the BRT out of the way, the Government must go back to the drawing board and re-think its traffic management strategies. The number of cars on Delhi's roads is increasing at tremendous speed. Of course, additional roads have to be built, but the people also have to be incentivised to take public transport. This will only happen when public transport is not just a viable but also a more efficient (quicker and comfortable) method of commuting. The BRT, supposedly designed to improve bus travel times, failed in this regard. The Delhi Metro has been a huge success, though, even if we don't see the difference on the road, as the density of vehicles in the national capital remains high.