Thanks to the Delhi government’s decision to reserve one lane on Josip Broz Tito Marg, between Moolchand Hospital and Ambedkar Nagar, exclusively for buses to implement the BRT system, a large volume of cars and bikers has now shifted to August Kranti Marg.

Bikers, cars and even buses now jostle for space every morning and evening, making driving a nightmare on this stretch. Motorists say the road does not have the capacity to handle such a huge rush of vehicles.

According to experts, traffic on August Kranti Marg has increased by at least 20-25 per cent in past 2-3 years.

“The government may have ensured a quick and smooth passage to bus commuters on the BRT but it is the motorists and the bikers who now suffer on both the BRT as well as this road,” said Tanmay Sharma, a resident of Asiad Village.

“People use this road as an alternative route to BRT to reach their destinations fast but get stuck amid slow moving traffic, sometimes for up to one hour,” he adds.

Motorists say problems on this stretch are plenty. With two big office complexes — HUDCO tower and the Siri Fort Institutional Area — shopping mall Ansal Plaza, lawns at Asiad Village complex that see frequent marriage functions, Siri Fort auditorium, a venue for film festivals and shows, and a number of residential colonies on either side, this road witnesses a huge volume of traffic every day.

“It is so difficult to take your car out of the office around 6pm. There is bumperto-bumper traffic. Since the road is narrow, the right turning traffic obstructs the vehicles going straight, resulting in chaos,” said Peeyush Sharma, who works at PHD Chamber of Commerce.

The problem, say commuters, compounds during marriage seasons and when there is a concert or a show at the Siri Fort auditorium. When it rains, the motorists are in for a major trouble.

“Since the parking space is limited, people often park their vehicles on the main road itself, leading to chaos. Vehicles entering the parking lot or coming out of it also obstruct the smooth movement of vehicles,” said Kamlesh Singh, a resident of village Shahpur Jat.

Motorists suggest that an underpass should be constructed near the Siri Fort auditorium and sports complex to ensure that vehicles going to these places do not obstruct the straight-moving traffic.

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An underpass is need of the hour. I once visited Sirifort for my son’s annual day function and had to park my car at Ansal Plaza as I was unable to get find a space there,” said Kakoli Das, a resident of Vaishali.

 

Source-http://paper.hindustantimes.com/

Praveer Ranjan, IG of Puducherry.Photo: S.S. Kumar

NEW DELHI: The wait for the regularisation process of e-rickshaws has led to another death in the capital.A two-and-a-half-year-old boy was flung from his mother’s lap into a pot of boiling sugar syrup in east Delhi’s Trilokpuri on Tuesday, after an errant e-rickshaw hit the woman carrying the baby.The incident, traffic cops claimed, was not an isolated one.

According to the data maintained by Delhi Traffic Police, till July 15 this year, e-rickshaws had been involved in more than 36 accidents, which have caused two fatalities. The death of Dev — Tuesday’s victim — has pushed the death toll to three with clamour growing louder for the regularisation of the batterypowered vehicles.

Overloading, not following traffic signals and driving in the wrong direction are some of the offences that these battery operated rickshaws are often guilty of, the traf fic cops claimed.

Earlier in June, an announcement for regularising these threewheeler vehicles had come as relief for the traffic police officers who had to manage these unruly vehicles on the roads which seldom followed rules.

But the delay in execution of these regularisation laws by the corporation has only helped making matters worse.

“We have drafted all rules and regulations to be followed by the e-rickshaw drivers once they come under the corporation’s purview. Soon we will be able to control the accidents caused by these rickshaws,” said a senior official from NDMC.

Known for providing last-mile connectivity, these compact vehicles ply on narrow lanes of congested colonies and often create panic among pedestrians.

In Tuesday’s incident Dev’s mother was taking him for a walk to the nearby market when an an e-rickshaw is said to have come out of nowhere and hit the duo.

Traffic officers corroborated that not obeying traffic signals, carrying more passengers than the vehicle’s designated space and not switching on the headlights at night not only endangered the lives of the passengers in the rickshaws but also pedestrians and other drivers on the road.

 

Source-http://paper.hindustantimes.com/

Till June 2014, a total of 137 cases had been registered against e-rickshaw drivers for rash and negligent driving.

Raising serious concer n, the Delhi traffic police said the passengers of e-rickshaws are not insured for injury or death as these vehicles do not carry insurance. This effectively curbs the passengers of these battery-powered vehicles against claiming any compensation from insurance companies in case of a mishap.

The matter becomes complicated as the operation of e-rickshaws is not regulated under the Motor Vehicle Act, because of which the police are unable to prosecute them. The traffic police claimed the unregulated plying of these vehicles often caused traffic problems and were a cause of nuisance on the roads.

“A large number of e-rickshaws are operating all over Delhi without registration and are being driven by people without proper licences. The drivers are not subjected to any background verification which is mandatory for all other public service vehicles operating in the state,” the traffic police said in its affidavit.

The traffic police said the battery-operated rickshaws should be properly registered in accordance to the Motor Vehicles Act and there should be a zoning system and colour coding for streamlining their operation.

It quoted The Energy and Resources Institute study that conclusively established that the wattage and speed of the e-rickshaws qualify them to be a motor vehicle.

“Any further assembly or production of e-rickshaws should be strictly prohibited till a regulatory mechanism is put in place,” the traffic police said.

It added that they should not be allowed to operate on arterial roads as their speed did not match that of other vehicles. Their operation should be restricted to feeder service as a mean of ‘last-mile connectivity’, the traffic police said. The HC is likely to hear the traffic police suggestions on Thursday.

 

Source-http://paper.hindustantimes.com/

Senior PWD engineers said DMRC had the technical expertise to run a modern mass transit system in the Capital and operate it successfully.

“We have written to the Delhi Metro that we will need its help to prepare the detailed project report and execute the project. We will prepare the ground for them,” a senior PWD engineer said.

A DMRC spokesperson, however, said they were yet to receive any official communication.

Senior Delhi government officials said the decision to involve Delhi Metro in the project was taken in a meeting headed by Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung. Sources said the L-G is taking keen interest in the project and has put it on the fast lane.

Re-introducing trams is a part of Delhi government’s ambitious Shahjahanabad re-development project to bring back the lost glory of the Walled City. Trams were a popular mode of public transport for almost 55 years between 1908 and 1963. The bigger plan is to have a tram network of about 20-kilometers in the walled city – as it did in the first half of the 20th century – with the government planning to run it on a three-kilometre route from Esplanade Road (near Red Fort crossing) to Sadar Bazar in first phase.

“To start with, we have started putting all external cables and wires underground from Fatehpuri to Esplanade Road. Once it is done we will take the second carriageway. We will also build 15-metre wide lane which will have the space for trams and pedestrians. The other side will have two carriageways for local traffic, non-motorised vehicles and emergency vehicles,” a senior PWD engineer said.

 

Source-http://paper.hindustantimes.com/

 Without public transport, Delhi may never be able to address its twin problems of air pollution and traffic congestion. But it has failed to meet its massive demand for buses simply because there aren’t enough depots.Millennium Park Bus Depot where 800 buses are parked will be moved in the wake of a high court order to relocate it from Yamuna riverbed. Meanwhile, Delhi Integrated MultiModal Transit System doesn’t have any parking space for 1,000 buses. Delhi Development Authority has not managed to allocate any land to them yet. After Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) came to power, the government decided in January to move the 50-acre Millennium Park depot to secure the Yamuna riverbed.“It’s a catchment area for water which cannot be meddled with,“ chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had said. But now delay in providing adequate space for buses by DDA has irked a section of environmentalists. Their stand is contrary to other activists who have been pushing for the relocation of Millennium Depot.

Environmentalist Sunita Narain feels bus depots should be prioritized over other issues. “The Millennium Bus De pot should not be shifted. A bus depot is needed; adverse impacts on the riverbed can be mitigated,“ she said. DDA has identified three places in Rohini Sector 4, Karkardooma and Institute of Driving Training and Research in Sarai Kale Khan. But relocation has been taking very long.

DTC officials claim that developing infrastructure in these three newly-allotted areas will mean massive investment in terms of both money and time.

Meanwhile, DIMTS has not been able to procure 1,000 air conditioned and non-air conditioned cluster buses as DDA hasn’t allocated any land to them.

“They have been promising it but nothing has been handed to us even though buses should be a priority . It’s time we should start looking at multilevel parking options for buses.
Delhi should also pay attention to safe infrastructure for bus stops and traffic calming measures near them,“ an official from DIMTS said.

DDA claims it doesn’t have enough land for bus depots.
“Allocating land to DTC for relocating Millennium Depot is taking long as we have to change land use. As for more land for DIMTS, we can only look for small patches of land–not big ones,“ a senior DDA official said.

Anumita Roychowdhury of CSE’s Clean Air Programme said, “It’s a very serious problem. Delhi has to find a way to share depot space efficiently and develop infrastructure like some depots in Bangalore so that more buses can be accommodated in them. We also need to explore efficient parking structures,“ she said.

A few weeks ago, I happened to re-visit some of the stories of Premchand and chanced upon ‘Idgah’. And this time my eyes welled up as I could relate with the emotions. Here is a four-year boy who sees his friends buying sweets and toys for themselves on Eid. He too is eager to do the same but he buys a pair of ‘chimta’(tongs) for his grandmother.

The story begins on Eid morning. Hamid doesn’t have new clothes or shoes like other children. His parents had died and he stays with his grandmother. He lives on a hope that someday his parents would return. He has only three ‘paise’ as Idi for the festival, to spend. He watches his friends spend their pocket money on rides, candies and toys. But he does not buy any such stuff. Instead, Hamid stops by a shop to buy a chimta. He remembers how his grandmother would burn her hand while cooking ‘rotis’.

On the way back, his friends ridicule him on buying the ‘chimta’ but he silences them with his intelligent remarks on how his ‘chimta’ was better than their perishable toys.

Initially, the grandmother is shocked and annoyed by his stupidity that instead of buying something to eat or buying a toy at the fair, he has purchased a ‘chimta’. But when Hamid tells her why he has bought the ‘chimta,’ she bursts into tears.

A small story but with a great meaning. The fouryear-old has compassion and maturity. For him, money was not for momentary pleasures. Why can’t we be like this four-year-old?

(Tuesday’s column by P P Wangchuk should have carried the headline, ‘Anger should reflect love’, andnot ‘Luck chases hard work’)

 

Source-http://paper.hindustantimes.com/

Mumbai: The wetlands in the coastal belts around Mumbai are being killed to make way for development, the Maharashtra forest department has told the Bombay high court.The court, while hearing a PIL by NGO Vanashakti in March, had banned all development on wetlands and instructed chief conservator of forests (mangrove cell) N Vasudevan to inspect the eight sites where the PIL said wetlands are being ruined. Vasudevan’s damning report, submitted last week, confirmed the continuing destruction despite the ban: the ecologically-significant wetlands around Mumbai are being reclaimed for parking lots and real estate projects.

In Dive-Anjur village, a 1.5-km-long road (with 22m width and 7m height) has been laid on the wetland off the busy Thane-Bhiwandi Road, cutting off the flow of tidal water to 300 hectares of wetlands. “It is noticeable from the highway and shows the audacity of the perpetrators of this environmental outrage. Real estate developers have already put up signboards announcing their intention to take up building projects,” states the report. In Mumbra “the scale of destruction is outrageous,” the report says, pointing out that reclamation of nearly 20 hectares of wetlands by multiple agencies is currently underway.

Vasudevan’s team visited eight sites at Dahisar Link Road, Bhuigaon village in Vasai taluka, Owala village in Bhayander, Ghodbunder Road, Dive-Anjur village, Diva village and Diva Sabegaon village, Vikhroli-Mulund Road and Targhar village in Uran.

At Dahisar Link Road, close to the slum Ganpat Patil Nagar that is settled on a CRZ area, the wetland abutting the road has been reclaimed and converted into a parking lot for private tourist vehicles. When the court-appointed team visited the site, illegal sand mining was in full swing. Scores of trucks were lined up to transport the loot away and the water from the wetland was being drained using diesel pumps.

At Targhar village in Uran, the team discovered reclamation of the privately-owned wetland being carried out despite the HC ban. The owners told the team that they wanted to develop garages, container godowns and parking lots on the site.

At Diva village, a 4-hectare site was first ravaged by sand mining. Then to fill the pit the Thane municipal corporation converted it into a dumping ground. And now the soil is being filled and the land levelled for other purposes, said the report. Similarly, at Diva-Sabegaon village, the wetland has been become the site of waste-dumping and construction of slums and chawls. Near Owala village, a 6-storey residential building has come up on the wetland. A housing finance company is offering loans for 1BHK flats, which are being sold for Rs 35 lakh, and 2BHK flats, which cost Rs 50 lakh.

Vasudevan points out in the report that wetlands are of tremendous ecological significance. They are rich repositories of bio-diversity and storehouses of water.

Source:Times of India