Unhappy at the Delhi Traffic Police’s failure in easing congestion from Delhi roads, the Supreme Court on Friday directed the Delhi Police Commissioner to appear and explain why this task could not be achieved.
An action plan prepared by the Delhi Police studied the causes behind the traffic woes plaguing the Capital and concluded that frequent traffic gridlocks along vital stretches were due to bottlenecks on account of road design, parking on roads, pavements, and encroachments along pavements and road stretches.
A task force constituted by the Delhi Government identified 77 road corridors that were congested of which 28 were classified as “highly congested”, 30 as “congested” and 19 as “less congested”.
The task force said certain long-term measures stretching over next six months to one year will be required involving construction of subways, footover bridges (FoBs), underpasses and U-turns.
The Delhi Traffic Police too identified several “main causes” for congestion on Capital roads that included encroachment on roads, footpaths and central verge, illegal parking on roads, less width of roads, irregular pedestrian movement across roads and improper junction or intersection design.
The Bench of Justices Madan B lokur and Deepak Gupta asked the Delhi Government counsel Wasim Qadri to explain why recommendations of the task force had not yet been implemented. On seeing that the traffic plan too will take two years to decongest Delhi roads, the Bench decided to summon the top cop of Delhi to give specific timelines.
The Bench felt that citizens of Delhi cannot afford to wait for two years to get rid of traffic bottlenecks. “You call the Commissioner of Police. He is the in-charge of Delhi Police,” Qadri told the Court that Delhi Police is not the only agency responsible to curb traffic chaos as several government agencies are involved in the process.
The Bench observed, “The problem in Delhi is that nobody is responsible here. Now you are saying that the Commissioner of Police is also not responsible…for the sake of people of Delhi, we are calling the Commissioner of Police.”