Delhi to get double-decker roads

The city government has already started consultation for state-of-the-art elevated corridors in the city which will have double-decker roads above the surface roads. As per the proposal, one of the levels will be fixed for buses while the other would be a paid corridor for cars. This move comes after the Chief Minister ruled out surface BRT projects in the city.

“The project is at a very nascent stage but in the first phase we are planning a 300-km double-decker elevated corridor in the city. These corridors will criss-cross the national Capital to ensure speedy and timely bus service at par with the Delhi Metro,” said Kejriwal.

He further informed that the government is in consultation with international infrastructure developers to get it done with minimum possible cost.

“Today, people park their cars and board Metro trains while they never do it for buses for a simple reason; the bus service is very poor and not on time. We want to put bus service at par with Delhi Metro in terms of frequency and timeliness,” he added.

As per the initial proposal, the cost of the elevated roads is around Rs 100 crore per km which is very less compared to Delhi Metro’s Rs 3,000 per km (approx). “The investors are very keen to invest in the city’s infrastructural development and we hope to complete the first phase in this tenure,” he added.

“The concept behind a paid corridor is to recover the cost of the project from the elite class who can pay for hassle-free traffic,” informed Kejriwal. The Chief Minister also added that his government will go for global tendering to purchase buses in the city. “As there are only two manufactures — TATA and Ashok Leyland — the buses are very costly. It’s like a type of monopoly in this sector. We have made a list of all the international manufactures and will go for global tendering soon,” he further added. The government had planned to add 10,000 more buses in the fleet of DTC but could not bring any so far due to long negotiations with the bus manufactures.