4

TIMES CITY

Unruly traffic: Panel advises

arrest for pavement parking

* THE TIMES OF INDIA, NEW DELHI

MONDAY, JUNE 6, 2016

ONE SHOWER NOT ENOUGH

Sanjeev Rastogi

Not In Favour Of Signal-Free Corridors, Unnecessary Flyovers

Dipak.Dash@timesgroup.com

New Delhi: In what could come as a big relief to lakhs of

pedestrians in Delhi, who are
forced to walk on the main road risking their lives, a central government-appointed
panel has recommended making parking and encroachment on foothpaths cognisable offences.
Once it becomes law, police and enforcement agencies
can book the offenders and
can also make arrests.
The committee set up for
Decongesting Traffic in Delhi, headed by urban development secretary Rajiv Gauba,
has also recommended that
signal-free corridors should
be avoided as this only attracted more traffic. The report
said building new flyovers
should not be taken up unless
it was over a river, a natural
barricade, rail line or of there was no other solution.
Focussing on measures to
reduce private vehicles on
city roads and to push buses,
taxis, auto-rickshaws besides
cycling and walking, the panel also suggested the need
for stiff parking charges
and congestion fee in crowded areas.
To make pavements free
for pedestrians, the panel said, Parking on footpaths should be made a cognisable offence with heavy penalties

CENTRES PLAN TO DECONGEST DELHI

Implementation

Projects
Parking management
districts
CP, Nehru
Place, Karol
Bagh, Kamla Nagar,
Vikas Marg, Lajpat
Nagar, Bhikaji Cama
Place
Ph-III metro
stations
78 stations
Integrated passenger
terminals
Sarai
Kale Khan,
Bijwasan, Anand
Vihar
Bus purchases

2,000

Cycle tracks and footpaths

200km of arterial and sub-arterial
roads at 70 junctions
Cycle sharing system
Dwarka and south Delhi
ITS
Central operations control centre,
signal management, GPS,
common mobility card,
website and mobile app
Route planning
Route rationalisation of DTC,
clusters, feeders and BRTS
Removing choke points
Improving 44 congestion points
Retrotting junctions
Geometric improvement of 200
junctions with IT surveillance and
vehicle detection

and compounding. This should be done by utilising the relevant provisions of the Municipal Act for public space
encroachment as well as the
Delhi Motor Vehicle Act and
Delhi Police Act for endangering the life of citizens. Pune
Municipal Corporation did
this in 2011.
Noting that roads in the city covered almost 21% of the
total land, 60% of passenger
trips were below four km distance and 80% below six km,
which were ideal for non-mo-

torised transport, the panel

recommended development
of infrastructure for promoting walking and cycling.
The committee also recommended interventions
involving Rs 20,000 crore investment through bus rapid
transit system, walking and
cycling infrastructure.
Though the panel had representatives from 19 different agencies from central
and Delhi governments, the
final report seems heavily loaded with views from the Uni-

fied Traffic and Transportation Infrastructure (Planning & Engineering) Centre

of DDA.
The committee also expressed serious concern over
mushrooming of gated communities in the city which
were compelling local traffic
to come on to main roads by
preventing short cuts for movement of people.
Detailing the interventions to make city roads smoother and safer that could be
completed within two and five
years, the committee recommended establishing a Unified Metropolitan Transport
Authority for better coordination, quick decision-making
and execution. It also suggested that the Delhi chief secretary, with representatives
from other stakeholders, should monitor implementation.
To deal with congestion
caused by on-road parking in
congested areas, the committee recommended five times
charges for on-road parking
than off-road. Even penal
charges for parking violations should be 10 times the
normal rates, it said.
As a thumb rule higher
the congestion, higher the fee
to be levied in the area to reduce parking demand, premium rates should be charged
for on-street parking in congested commercial areas, the
report said.

Make bus rides cheap to beat bikes

Dipak.Dash@timesgroup.com

New Delhi: As the number of

motorcycles and scooters on
the roads increases and becomes an alternative to public
transport, the government
panel on decongesting traffic
in Delhi has recommended
that bus fares be priced less
than the per km cost of running a two-wheeler.
Two-wheelers are the
biggest competitors of public
transport because of low per
km fuel cost. It is far more
competitive when two persons are using one motorbike, said a road transport ministry official.

The panel set up by the urban development ministry said that for both short (less than
three km) and long (over 10
km) trips, cars/two-wheelers
are always the most convenient mode of transport. Public
transport can never compete
if there is ease of use of private vehicles, the report said.
While the focus is to shift
people from two-wheelers to
buses, the panel also suggested ways to push car users to
take buses by providing airconditioned ones and priority corridors. It recommended
purchase of 2,000 buses in the
short term and another 4,000
in the next five years to aug-

The report recommended

the need for a freight
audit study to map
cargo flows to and from
Delhi and also within the
city so that a freight plan
can be prepared
ment the fleet to 11,000.
The committee also recommended rolling out five
BRTS corridors totalling 124
km on high density stretches.
Only BRTS and bus service
improvement will need about
Rs 6,760 crore of the plans
worth Rs 19,762 crore that has
been recommended by the

committee, said a UD ministry official. The report mentioned the need to create an
urban transport fund to augment bus services by tapping
various revenue streams like
parking charges, fuel taxes
and advertisement income.
The report recommended
the need for a freight audit
study to map current and future cargo flows to and from
Delhi and also within the city
so that a freight master plan
can be prepared. It suggested
a study to find out the mode
of transport for the cargo
and whether it was the the
most economic and environmental friendly.

SIZZLING CITY: Two women try to beat the heat at India Gate. Met predicts an overcast Monday, but says
there are chances of a thunderstorm. The temperature, though, is likely to remain the same

CM: Jung, BJP

blocking plan
for bus lane
New Delhi: Chief minister
Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday
accused LG Najeeb Jung and
BJP of blocking the governments ambitious bus-lane
proposal under which motorists obstructing plying of buses in such lanes would be fined Rs 2,000.
Three months after Jung
sought a clarification from the
Delhi government on its buslane proposal, the AAP dispensation sent back the plan to
him on Thursday after making minor changes in it.
We trying to implement it
(bus-lane proposal). Unfortunately, LG n BJP blocking
it (sic), Kejriwal wrote on
Twitter.
In another tweet, Kejriwal
said that he hoped that the LG
and BJP would stop blocking the AAP governments
public interest schemes. As
per the governments plan,
bus lanes will be created along
major roads across the capital.
The Delhi government has
recommended giving a special
power to junior engineers and
PWD officials senior to them
to impound vehicles and challan motorists obstructing plying of buses on the such lanes.
Bus lanes have been marked along 500 km of Public
Works Department roads in
the capital, PWD Minister Satyender Jain has said. PTI

35-year-old
rapes minor
in N Delhi
New Delhi: A six-year-old
child was raped by a 35-yearold man in north Delhis Burari on Sunday morning. The
child was admitted to a hospital and the culprit arrested.
Abdul Rahim Khan, who
works as a painter and has
three children, went to the
survivors house to talk to her
father about a contract. But
she was alone and the man forced himself upon her. He then
threatened to harm the girl if
she told anyone about it.
When her parents returned, the girl told them. Her parents and some neighbours
dragged Khan out of his house, thrashed him and handed
him over to the police. A POCSO case has been registered.

7,000 paramilitary troops

deployed in Haryana
Continued from P1

n Haryana, prohibitory orders have been imposed in

sensitive districts like
Jhajjar, Sonepat, Rohtak, Panipat, Hisar, Fatehabad, Jind
and Kaithal. In some of these
places, mobile internet and
bulk messaging services
have been stopped.
Security has also been
tightened
in
Gurgaon,
though Jats in the district
have declared they will wait
for the high court verdict on
the quota before joining the
protest. Police, however, are
taking no chances after the
first round of protests in February triggered violence
across Haryana, leaving 30
people dead.
The UP administration
has, meanwhile, deployed a
company of CRPF and policemen in Muradnagar to
ensure protesters do not disrupt supply of potable water
to Delhi by targeting the Upper Ganga canal. Around 470
cusec of water is transported
every day from the regulator
to the capital. The protesters
had in the previous phase disrupted water supply to Delhi
by vandalising the Munak canal in Haryana.
Sunday, the first day of the
quota protests by Jat communities, was peaceful. Across

Haryana, 7,000 paramilitary

troops from CRPF, RAF,
ITBP and BSF have been
deployed to deal with the agitation.
Trouble is brewing in
Gautam Budh Nagar too, Delhis immediate neighbour in
UP. On Sunday, families of
suspects arrested for killing
Akhlaq in Dadris Bisada village last year on the suspicion that he had stored and
consumed beef met police

A CRPF company has

been deployed in
Muradnagar to ensure
Jat protesters do not
disrupt supply of
water to Delhi by
targeting the Upper
Ganga canal
chief Dharmendra Singh to
demand an FIR against the
Akhlaqs family for cow
slaughter.
The families have decided
to hold a meeting in Bisada
on Monday to mobilise opinion for a mahapanchayat
seeking justice. They accuse the UP government of
conducting a partial probe in
the case, and have cited the forensic report from the Mathura lab of the seized meat

sample being beef as a vindication of their stand. Police

have, however, said the meat
tested was taken from a road
outside Akhlaqs house.
They also say it the nature of
the meat has no bearing on
the murder probe.
Singh assured the families of a fair probe and asked
circle officer Anurag Singh
to investigate their complaint. The matter is sub-judice. The complaint will be
investigated, Singh said. A
police contingent has been
deployed in Bisada.
Sanjay Rana, father of
prime accused Vishal, said,
Police should register an
FIR against Akhlaqs family
as the forensic report has
confirmed it was cow meat.
We will hold a panchayat on
Monday in Bisada, where we
will take a call a for mahapanchayat of 144 villages if our
demands are not met.
Union minister Mukhtar
Abbas Naqvi, who visited
Noida on Sunday, said the
lynching episode was a sensitive issue and the state government should have handled it carefully. The state
government took a casual approach in the entire incident.
This has affected peoples
faith in the government. Investigations should be fair,
he said.