The government has decided to widen the road at Press Enclave and acquire land near Chirag Dilli village by covering the drain to ease traffic on the Bus Rapid Transit corridor. The decision comes after three days of traffic nightmare on the 5.6-km stretch. Delhi Chief Secretary Rakesh Mehta said the government is also looking at the possibility of building underpasses for traffic headed rightward along the corridor, leading up to Chirag Dilli intersection.

Asks stakeholders to plug loopholes

The trial run on the first 5.6-km section of the highly controversial Bus Rapid Transit Corridor from Ambedkar Nagar to Moolchand Hospital in South Delhi would begin from April 22. To begin with, 20 new low-floor buses would be pressed into service on this section. Disclosing this on Wednesday, Delhi Transport Minister Haroon Yusuf expressed confidence that the corridor would live up to public expectations. "The corridor would be formally thrown open to the public in the first week of May. I am sure people will appreciate it once it is opened,' he said.

The Chandigarh Administration will underwrite 50 per cent of the cost of the Metro Rail Project (Common Mobility Plan) and Detailed Project Report (DPR) while the proportion for Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh would be 20, 20 and 10 per cent respectively. The division of the entire cost was prepared during a joint meeting chaired by UT Adviser Pradip Mehra, Haryana Chief Secretary Dharam Vir, Punjab Chief Secretary Ramesh Inder Singh and Himachal Pradesh Principal Secretary (Transport) Ashok Thakur, held last week.

The traffic department of Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) clamps down on around 15,000 motorised three wheelers and 1,000 city service buses from today in a bid to ease the passengers' everyday hassles and streamline the commuter services within the periphery of 60-sq km area of the port city.

China, India Urged To Avoid Obsession With Cars CHINA: April 14, 2008 BOAO - China and other big developing countries such as India need to take steps to avoid being over-reliant on private cars, the head of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning UN climate panel said. Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told Reuters that investing in improving railways and urban public transportation was one way countries such as China could balance the need for fighting climate change with that for economic growth.

CNG-run buses charge high fare in capital Abdul Kader All the CNG-run buses in the capital charge higher than the diesel-run buses cashing in on the absence of a fare chart for the former, sources in Bangladesh Road Transport Authority said. A CNG-run bus needs Tk 2 for travelling a distance of one kilometre while the cost of fuel for a diesel-run bus for plying the same distance would be Tk 14, according to the energy division of the government. The price of per cubic meter CNG is Tk 8.5 while the current price of per litre diesel is Tk 40.

The city government has decided to launch the "CNG Bus Project' on a public-private partnership basis for the introduction of an environment-friendly public transport system. Under the project, 2,500 more CNG buses would be brought to city over the next five years. City government sources said that in the first phase, 500 CNG buses would be brought to the city roads through private sector. The city government has invited expression of interest (EoI) to be submitted by the interested parties by May 8 with the office of the Karachi Mass Transit Cell.

THE Eddington report contains the right approach to reducing greenhouse emissions from transport, but the assumptions it makes deserve to be challenged. They are, in some cases, far too timid, in other cases over-optimistic and, in general, heavily biased towards business as usual. Eddington's approach, which is correct, is to propose a bundle of changes that could lead to a reduction in emissions from transport. These changes are: reducing travel demand, boosting public transport share, improving vehicle technologies, and increasing vehicle occupancy.