To ease traffic in CP, NDMC to make new plan

Tuesday, Jan 12, 2010

 With construction work for subways throwing traffic out of gear in Connaught Place over the past fortnight, it was decided on Monday that officials of all the stakeholders will visit the area and make a fresh plan to tackle the situation.

The traffic situation had become nightmarish ever since the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) began digging up the radial roads to make subways, put in ducts and redo the façade of the 75-year-old buildings late last month.

To address the issue and devise solutions, officials from the NDMC, Delhi Traffic Police, the New Delhi Trader's Association (NDTA) met Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna today. It was decided in the meeting that representatives from the civic agency, traffic department and NDTA would visit the area on Tuesday and Wednesday and come up with a proposal to handle the situation. NDMC spokesperson Anand Tiwari told Newsline after the meeting that the solution will be put into practice by the end of this week.

He said separate teams from NDMC, traffic police and NDTA members will visit the affected areas to check how traffic should be diverted to ease congestion. "More details will follow after they submit their findings," Tiwari said, "but traffic congestion will be cleared by the end of this week."

Senior government officials, meanwhile, said NDMC has agreed to immediately open up a single lane for vehicles where work is going on.

The civic agency had barricaded the entire Outer Circle to construct eight pedestrian subways, which were to be completed in 240 days. But as construction work threw traffic out of gear, NDMC is now considering carrying out this work in a phased manner, which means the project will take longer than the 240 days earlier allotted to it.

Working on phased construction will, however, free up more road and parking space in the Capital's busy central district.

Delhi Traffic Police chief Ajay Chaddha said everything would remain the same as of now. On Sunday, the traffic police had eased the traffic load to a certain extent by removing the barricades put up on Outer Circle. "Traffic is now much better," he said, "and it will improve further by the end of this week."

NDTA president Atul Bhargava, who was part of today's meeting, said: "Traffic has been badly affected by the constructions in CP and we have been asking for a solution. It was decided in the meeting that NDMC and NDTA should get together and discuss the issue to find out an effective way to handle the situation." He said the civic body has been given a week's time to ease the congestion.

The NDMC was asked in the meeting to finish all construction work in the next eight months leading up to the Commonwealth Games.

Original news source http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/to-ease-traffic-in-cp-ndmc-to-make-new-plan/566268/