Environment, urban dev & mobility take centre stage in draft
New Delhi: From re-imagining mobility in the city to be intelligent technology-driven and dependent on greener public transportation along with sweeping recommendations to manage the land-locked city's water demand while at the same time taking care of the environmental concerns, the draft MPD 2041 has chosen to prioritise environmental concerns, urban development and transportation in its vision for the Capital two decades down the road.
The draft MPD 2041 has been made available on the website of the Delhi Development Authority and public suggestions and objections have been invited, a senior DDA official said on Wednesday.
The draft delineates that the public transport system of Delhi needs further integration at the institutional level, spatial-level and systems-level; to provide a seamless travel experience to the commuters.
The plan focuses on strategic corridors to boost high-speed connectivity and redevelopment of the historic ring rail network so that heritage sites can be made more accessible, in addition to zeroing in on last-mile connectivity, among others and systems integration (bus route rationalisation, intelligent transport systems, including unified ticketing, command and control center for better traffic management).
The draft also envisions smarter transportation, saying ITS shall use "data repository and artificial intelligence" to play a major role in improving the efficiency and coordination among different transport modes and systems in the city.
The draft plan also focuses on building the city around cyclists and pedestrians, ensuring mechanisms to safeguard their mobility, through measures such as footbridges and cycling lanes, thereby providing the space for residents to switch to green forms of transportation.
As for the city's water problems, the draft plan recommended that the per capita demand for potable water in the city be rationalised and reduced by at least 10 gallons per day.
It focused on several options to save water, especially through means such as rain water harvesting and revival of groundwater levels.
"Due to the limited availability of raw water to Delhi, DJB targets of demand of potable water for domestic use needs to be rationalized and progressively reduced to 50 GPCD (225 LPCD) and supplemented by using non-potable recycled water of desired quality standard for non-potable purposes," read the draft.
The plan recommends that non-potable recycled water be used for almost all non-potable functions such as maintenance of gardens, parks, industries etc.
