After failing to implement the pilot project of carbandi twice in iconic Connaught Place’s inner circle, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has abandoned its project. NDMC secretary Rashmi Singh told The Pioneer that the council right now has no plan to restrict entry of private vehicles in CP, New Delhi’s iconic heart and global showpiece.
However, NDMC sources said the move to “pedestrianise” CP is not to be implemented in the future. It faced stiff resistance from traders.
Last week, there were back to back meeting held between CP stakeholders in which apart from council and traders, representatives of the Delhi Traffic Police also participated. Confirming the news, New Delhi Traders’ Association (NDTA) president Atul Bhargava told The Pioneer that we are
happy as council’s chairman Naresh Kumar has agreed with us and scrapped the idea of carbandi.
Sharing the minutes of meetings, Bhargava said, “Two meetings were held in last two days among traders, the Delhi Police and council. The NDMC told us that pollution is the main reason for bringing in the project.”
The traders said in the meeting that banning entry of private vehicles in inner circle my cause congestion and pollution in outer circle.
On the project, NDMC sources said to implement the plan without taking traders into confidence is not feasible. It may be recalled that in January 2017, Kumar coined the idea of carbandi on the directions of then Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu who wanted to decongest CP.
The council had taken several attempts to implement the plan and recently also conducted drill and two-day pilot run to the project on trail bases, however, amid traders’ protest, the launch was a failure.
It may be noted that the council promised parking and ride facilities to make CP pedestrian friendly and claimed that the move would help reduce pollutants. However, Delhi residents protested against the scheme that it will only cause inconvenience and harassment to visitors.
It was decided that traffic entering the inner circle will be diverted towards Ranjit Singh Road flyover. “The entry gate to Palika parking can also be changed. Palika multi-level parking has a capacity of some 1408 vehicles. Plan is afoot to provide a gate for parking since the vehicles will be banned from entering the inner circle, NDMC official had said earlier.
From the very first day of the announcement, traders were protested and claimed that the implementation of this project will harm their business.