Come Monday, cops to man bus stops

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Come Monday and Delhi Police would make your commuting by bus a safe and secure affair. Keeping in view the vulnerability of bus stops, traffic police along with local police would start manning city's 300 most susceptible bus stops. Of them, 200 will be manned by the local police while 100 will be manned by traffic police.

"Visibility of police at bus stops is the need of the hour. Their presence will give a sense of security to commuters and will also create fear psychosis among the miscreants. Besides, they will check violations like overtaking, lane violation, halting at non-designated places, unnecessary halting and improper parking by autos at the bus stops," said Satyendra Garg, joint commissioner of police (traffic).

Thousands of women commuters — mostly the office goers — face mental and physical harassment everyday at bus stops. From Monday their safety and security will be ensured by women traffic constables. Each of them will be accompanied by their male counterpart. Police, however, did not disclose which bus stops will be manned by traffic police and which by local police.

At most of the bus stops police will be present during morning and evening peak hours, while at some they will be present between 8 am and 10 pm.

Traffic police would deploy about 300 constables including 40 women for the job, while each of 186 police stations would be responsible to man at least two bus stops, said a senior police officer.

"One of our prime responsibilities would be to assure safety and security of women commuters. In case of any misbehaviour or harassment with them strict action will be taken against the wrongdoers," Garg added, saying, "One of the staff will go inside the bus and make announcements to alert passengers to be vigilant about suspicious objects. They will also randomly check belongings of passengers."

Original news source http://www.indianexpress.com/news/mcd-may-lose-out-on-central-funding-for-parking-projects/803265/0

MCD may lose out on Central funding for parking projects

Thursday, June 14, 2011

At A time when Delhi is facing an acute shortage of parking space, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is in danger of losing out on Central funding for six of its multi-level parking projects.

As many as 10 MCD projects were approved under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission for over Rs 800 crore, but the civic body failed to secure environment clearances for them.

The deadline for completion of all JNNURM projects is March 2012, and if work on the projects is not taken up soon, there is a possibility of losing out on financial aid from the Centre as well as Delhi government. At least 25 percent of the budget comes from the Union Government under this scheme.

Delhi's Urban Development Secretary R K Srivastava said the mandatory clearance by the Unified Traffic and Transportation Infrastructure (Planning and Engineering) Centre (UTTIPEC) was expected soon, and the civic agency will be able to start work on the projects after that.

"As many as 29 projects, amounting to Rs 8,027 crore, were approved — out of which 10 are yet to be taken up. Work on all the 10 is to be executed by the MCD," he said, adding that 19 projects — taken up by other agencies such as Delhi Jal Board, New Delhi Municipal Council and Public Works Department — have already been completed.

The civic agency could not get sanction for the projects — most of which are multi-level parking — on environmental grounds. The MCD had proposed to construct underground parking lots under MCD parks. The environment committees have, however, rejected the idea. Only parking lots above the ground have received permission as of now. Unless these projects begin before this year ends, the budget will lapse.

He said the Union Urban Development Ministry has set March 31, 2012, as the deadline for completing the projects and there was a possibility of financial allocation not coming at all for the projects. "We are expecting permission for the projects soon," the official said.

Original news source http://www.indianexpress.com/news/mcd-may-lose-out-on-central-funding-for-parking-projects/803265/0

Delhi model to curb drunk driving

Tuesday, June 04, 2011

If all goes according to plan, drunk drivers can land in jail in the coming months. This may become possible as the Chandigarh police has decided to adopt the Delhi Traffic Police model against drunk driving, through which the drivers found guilty of this offence can be imprisoned up to six months.

The police believe that drunk driving is one of the major causes of fatal accidents taking place in the city.

"We have decided to adopt the Delhi Traffic Police model to curb the menace of drunk driving in the city," Inspector General of Police Pradeep Kumar Srivastava said at a joint press conference, also addressed by Delhi Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Satyendra Garg.

Srivastava said the UT police has decided to approach judicial officers in Chandigarh on the issue so as to make them aware about the Delhi model where the accident rate due to tough measures—where the offenders are put behind bars—had shown encouraging results.

"We have plans to go hammer and tongs against menace of drunk driving in the city and in near future we will try to implement the Delhi model," Srivastava said.

Garg, who before addressing the press conference, chaired a meeting with the officials of UT police to make them aware about the legal course against drunk driving, said a message had gone in Delhi among the people that 'one can't go away with the drunk driving'.

"It took lot of time to ensure that the drunk drivers are punished. The Section 185 of MV Act 1988, specially deals with inebriated drivers and all those found guilty used to pay the fine and beyond it they were not punished. They would apologise before the court. But there was a provision for imprisonment for this offence, but it was never enforced at any place. In 2010, we took the issue with the judicial officers in Delhi and after many meetings and explaining that the law needed to be tough and the offenders need to be arrested as the drunk driving was the root cause of the fatal accidents, they too decided to be strict," Garg said.

"After 2010, we imprisoned hundreds of offenders."

Delhi's joint commissioner of police said they have been able to bring down the accident rate after initiating tough action against the drunk drivers.

"At a time when accidents are increasing everywhere, we in Delhi were able to bring down the accidents by 10 per cent in 2010 and in first five months (of this year), the accidents have been brought down to 12 per cent ," he said, adding that after the conviction, the driving licences of the offenders were also suspended by the authorities.

Original news source http://www.indianexpress.com/news/delhi-model-to-curb-drunk-driving/800260/0

MCD fight holds up parking lots

Monday, June 06, 2011

For the average Delhiite, parking is a never-ending problem. Now, it has got aggravated thanks to an ongoing tussle between the MCD's political and executive wings over the tendering of parking lots. Delhi, which is already short on parking space, would have got an additional 125 surface parking lots had the executive wing called for tenders for the same. This would have created an additional space for 12,500 vehicles.

Presently there are around 110 surface parking lots that fall under the jurisdiction of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). These 110-odd parking lots can accommodate only 11,000 vehicles at any given point of time.

According to sources, the executive wing had decided to invite tenders for the 125-odd new parking lots. These tenders were floated with new terms and conditions in order to rein in errant contractors. However, the Delhi Mayor questioned this move of the Remunerative Project (RP) Cell as to why permission from both the MCD Standing Committee and House were not taken.

"How can they change the terms and conditions without taking the MCD House or Standing Committee's permission? There is an official channel through which all such projects and schemes are cleared. They officers need to follow that. I have received representation from a number of quarters asking why the terms were changed," said Mayor Rajni Abbi.

Sources added that all the parking lots whose tenders have not been called for are being run illegally by the parking mafia that has been fleecing people by overcharging them.

The civic agency had incorporated the new terms and conditions on the recommendation of the Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA).

A statutory body formed after on the Supreme Court directions, EPCA monitors the progress of various steps taken by the government agencies and develops new policies to curb vehicular air pollution.

"The development appears to be a tacit move by the parking contractor mafia, who are apparently trying to thwart the new terms and conditions so as to run unauthorised parking lots in order to make money," said a senior MCD official requesting anonymity. 

Last month, the civic agency had received flak from the EPCA for not complying with the different conditions to regularise parking sites in the city.

During a meeting of the EPCA with various civic agencies, Bhure Lal, its chairperson had taken the MCD officials to task for showing laxity about demarcating the parking sites, introducing handheld parking ticket machines and installing boards displaying rates.

Original news source http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/newdelhi/MCD-fight-holds-up-parking-lots/Article1-706191.aspx

Khan market parking: HC in favour of NDMC

Saturday, June 04, 2011

The Delhi High Court on Friday gave its nod to a mandate by the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) to do away with the free parking facility in Khan Market.

Going by the views of the the Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) and Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), Justice S Muralidhar refused to interfere with the decision and noted: "There is paid parking in every major commercial centre and market in the NDMC area except Khan Market. The impugned decision was only extending the policy of paid parking to Khan Market as well...The traders' association has been unable to persuade the court otherwise."

The court has told the association to deposit a licence fee of Rs 5.34 lakh with the NDMC by 5 pm on June 6 if it wishes to maintain parking issues by itself.

Responding to the order, Sanjiv Mehra, president of the association, said: "We are going to pay the NDMC and keep the parking in our jurisdiction. Parking will be free at least for now.

Original news source http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/khan-market-parking-hc-in-favour-of-ndmc/799185/

City’s 300 parking lots under high vigil

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Parking lots in the Capital will no longer remain the safe haven to hide stolen vehicles or the ones used for any anti-social activities. Following Wednesday's explosion at the parking area outside the Delhi high court, Delhi traffic police on Thursday have started scanning city's all 300 odd parking lots to identify such vehicles. They will soon come out with an exhaustive list of vehicles that were either stolen or used for any criminal activities in or outside Delhi or unclaimed for long, said a senior traffic police officer.

Traffic police on Thursday scanned a total of 261 parking lots to identify the vehicles parked there for more than three days. They have found as many as 410 vehicles that were parked in the parking areas at least three days ago.

"After completing the scanning process by Friday, the data will be sent to the crime branch to match the registration numbers of these vehicles with the available database of stolen vehicles or vehicles used for any anti-social activities.

After this, we will toe away these vehicles from the parking areas and also trace the ones who owned the vehicles," said Satyendra Garg, joint commissioner of police (traffic).

Teams of traffic police went all over Delhi on Thursday to sensitise parking agents to be extra careful while letting vehicles to park.

Besides, the teams also sensitised authorities at taxi stands as well as TSR stands and halting points. A total of 284 taxi stands and 129 TSR stops have been covered, said officials.

Original news source http://www.hindustantimes.com/City-s-300-parking-lots-under-high-vigil/Article1-702388.aspx

SN market to get swanky parking lot boost from July

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Come July and the heavily crowded Sarojini Nagar market will sport a cleaner look. The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) is in a rush to finish the Sarojini Nagar automatic multi-level parking lot by June 30. Once the parking lot is ready, vehicles will not be allowed to be parked on the roadside, which at present results in traffic blockage.

However, according to the civic agency, the current surface parking lots will continue to function, because the place is a local market as well, people sometimes visit it to buy groceries and park their vehicles for barely a few minutes.

"Considering automated parking lot makes sense if you want to use it for a longer time, the surface parking will be available for day-to-day needs of the residents," said a senior NDMC official.

The multi-level parking lot at Sarojini Nagar would accommodate 824 vehicles at a given point of time. NDMC officials said preliminary fire survey was over, and the completion certificate will be given soon.

The civic body also plans to make a parking lot at Shivaji Stadium functional soon. The parking lot can accommodate up to 1,200 cars.

While Shivaji Stadium is a conventional parking site, a multi-level parking lot on Baba Kharak Singh Marg — which has a July 30 deadline — will have palette technology.

The parking lot will cater to the traffic coming to Connaught Place, Hanuman Mandir and the state emporiums there.

This parking lot will accommodate 1,408 cars.

The two multi-level parking lots, at Sarojini Nagar and Baba Kharag Singh Marg, were to be completed by Commonwealth Games 2010 but due to delays in getting clearances, the work could not be completed.

Original news source http://www.hindustantimes.com/SN-market-to-get-swanky-parking-lot-boost-from-July/Article1-701600.aspx