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New Delhi: The hapless provincial Delhi government has received support from environmentalists in its bid to introduce dedicated bus corridors in the city.
The support has come at a time when Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit has threatened to scrap the 5.6km Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor that was opened for trial last week.
The traffic jams on Ambedkar Nagar-Moolchand Hospital section have provoked public outcry while Delhi is barely seven months away from the assembly elections.
The Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) and the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) yesterday urged the government not to give in to the pressure saying strengthening public transport is the only way out for Delhi's traffic problems and air pollution.
"Delhi needs big answers for its big problems and tough measures like BRT system is one such solution in its roadmap," stated EPCA chairman Bhure Lal and CSE director Sunita Narain. "Once seen as one of the most polluted cities in the world, Delhi did succeed in arresting its air pollution through big-ticket solutions like the introduction of compressed natural gas.
"The answer to pollution will be to invest heavily in public transport, increase the bus fleet and restructure the bus service." They pointed out that Delhi rolls out 1,000 vehicles daily. Roads cover 21 per cent of Delhi's area.
While the road length increased by 20 per cent from 1996 and 2006, cars increased by 132 per cent, reducing peak hour speed to just 15km/h.
Narain pointed out Delhi's old and disorganised public transport system moves 50-60 per cent of its people while cars that occupy 75 per cent of the road space carry just about 20 per cent of the people.
Delhi, according to estimates, is short of about 10,000 buses. The Delhi Transport Corporation has already ordered 500 new buses while tenders have been floated to procure another 4,500 buses.
"It is time we gave the bus its due space on our roads and attract more people to start using buses," they said.
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