Even as the Delhi government is trying to make its beleaguered dream project bus rapid transit (BRT) project to work without causing chaos, Dinesh Mohan, professor, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and the brain behind the project has suggested to the Planning Commission to stall the expansion of the Delhi Metro Rail Project and replace it with BRT.
The controversy over the BRT corridor has also generated a lot of curiosity about the system. With the issue failing to die down, several government officials dealing with the project claim they have been receiving calls inquiring about the system. Some of the questions flying their way are: "How does the system work? What are its benefits?
The BRT in Beijing was opened in December 2005 and was an instant success, way beyond official predictions about its ridership. The predictions had said that by 2007, a total of 1.5 lakh people would be using the system per day. The figure for the 10km route touched 1.3 lakh on the third day. The system has 17 bus stations across eight residential areas with a total population of about 2 lakh. The CM might hope for similar luck with the system back home when she returns.
With a hand up in the air, a motley juggernaut of cars, bikes, autos, cycles and handcarts on the busy Chirag Dilli crossing comes to a halt. Heads turn expectantly towards the hand for the go signal. In minutes, another wave of hand, and the traffic is snaking furiously ahead.
Facing flak at home over the BRT fiasco, chief minister Sheila Dikshit is now looking eastwards for inspiration. Dikshit, along with four city government officials, is all set to fly to Beijing later this month and officials say a trip to the Beijing BRT to see how it is working may be on the cards. The official purpose of the visit, though, is to see the preparations for the Olympic Games.
The September 2008 deadline for launching phase-1 of the BRTS is unlikely to be met as bidding for the bus services will be conducted afresh. Although officials are still confident that the bus services would be launched by the end of 2008, in the first stretch from RTO to Pirana, they will be racing against time to achieve that.
Despite the public outcry against the bus rapid transit (BRT) system, the transport department reiterated that the work on other BRT corridors has been put on hold and not scrapped. The work on the these corridors will begin soon after the problems on the Ambedkar Nagar-Moolchand Nagar corridor are solved. Transport commissioner R.K. Verma said, "BRT is to minimise traffic congestion in the city. It will work once all these problems are sorted out. We need a little more time to make corrections and make this system useful for commuters."
The transport department of the Delhi government today banned the movement of Blueline buses on much-criticised BRT corridor from Ambedkar Nagar to Moolchand and deployed additional low-floor buses on it. Delhi transport minister Haroon Yusuf said that this had been done to make the movement of buses smooth as earlier it was reported that traffic jam occurred due to Blueline buses. Bus drivers halted the vehicles wherever they wanted. They do not maintain discipline. Now plying of only low-floor DTC buses will ease the traffic movement, he said.
