Desperate Govt Proposes Road Widening, Grade Separator & Intelligent Traffic Signals At their wit's end in dealing with the heavy traffic volume on the BRT corridor which continues to be marked by jams and delays, the government has initiated a slew of measures to make the corridor work at any cost. The latest are road widening at the Siri Fort intersection, construction of a grade separator on Outer Ring Road and intelligent traffic signals throughout the corridor.

Angry over the mess in the BRT corridor and the mounting opposition to it in an election year, CM Sheila Dikshit had announced that work on the rest of the stretch and the other proposed five corridors would be discontinued till the glitches were removed from the pilot stretch. But commuters who daily emerge bruised and battered from the pilot stretch have been increasingly feeling dismayed by the work on the rest of the stretch that shows no signs of being called off.

With an obstinate Government going ahead with the Bus Rapid Transport system disregarding growing unrest against the project, unhappy Union Urban Development Ministry has stepped in to put tough questions to the patrons of the controversial plan. The Ministry has asked the Delhi Government to remove glitches and apprehensions pertaining to the ill-conceived BRT corridor project in Delhi.

Coupled with the ongoing construction of the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) corridor on BSZ Marg and the Delhi T20 match at Feroz Shah Kotla grounds on Wednesday, traffic came to standstill with commuters gasping for breathing space. A senior traffic official was apprehensive that situation would worsen when the corridor would be built here and starts functioning. Match lovers were looking for space to park their vehicles on the entire stretch as almost one-third of the road space was taken away by ongoing work of the BRT corridor.

Post-BRT corridor the commuters travelling between Ambedkar Nagar and Moolchand section have started giving a damn care attitude towards the road and traffic signals. While the Government has expressed its obstinacy in not restoring the road structure of 5.8 km between Ambedkar Nagar to Moolchand, commuters too have resorted to reckless driving 'to exhibit their protest against the corridor'.

The illogic of Delhi's botched BRTS experiment

A day after its first accident, life returned to normal on the BRT corridor today. Cars waited in long queues; people waited at intersections, to cross over and board the buses plying along the central verge; traffic marshals directed different vehicles to their demarcated lanes; and all officials were busy controlling the chaotic traffic. But memories of yesterday's incident are still fresh in the minds of residents of neighbouring localities.

The PR disaster called Bus Rapid Transit corridor has stung the Delhi government hard in an election year. In a damage-control move, the government has got PR guru Dilip Cherian to oversee publicity and awareness campaign for the project on behalf of the Delhi Integrated Multimodal Transit System (DIMTS). "We have been selected as the agency to handle the corridor,' Cherian told Newsline, "though this does not just mean publicity. It also means creating awareness about the project, and data collection for agencies implementing the project.'