Transport system a major poll plank in 'most polluted' Ggm

Gurugram: Election campaigning in Gurugram is on the full swing at a time when the air quality levels are plummeting to extremely unhealthy levels. Gurugram has already been given the dubious tag of the world's most polluted city in a survey conducted by a prominent non-governmental organisation earlier this year. A solution to tackle the pollution, which has found concurrence among candidates of all political parties, has been to improve the public transport system in the city and extend the Metro services. Despite the assurances on the ground, challenges remain. In October 2010, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) had begun operating from Gurugram with just five stations covering 10 kilometre in all. The five stations in the city are — Guru Dronacharya, Sikanderpur, MG Road, IFFCO Chowk, and HUDA City Centre.

The distance between the first station — Guru Dronacharya and the last station — ­HUDA City Centre is 10 kilometers. The BJP and Congress governments claim that in their tenure they finalised the Detailed Project Report (DPR) to extend Metro services in the old city. The work on the ground, however, has not started. In a major concern for the government agencies, the Gurugram private Metro also failed to serve the purpose as agencies were forced to halt operation because of heavy losses.

It is important to note that nine years since the Metro began operating in Gurugram, it has expanded in Greater Noida, Faridabad, Ballabhgarh and various areas of Delhi. There are over a hundred city buses that are plying through various routes.

Introduced by the Haryana government in 2018, the city bus service named Gurugraman has gained traction as per the official report there are already 17 lakh passengers that have availed its service till October,

2019. There are plans to introduce a hundred more buses that also includes electric buses.

Despite the huge investment Gurugram is still not being able to get rid of them with the traffic jams. The main reason cited for it is the massive number of private vehicles that are hitting Gurugram roads daily. In just six months from January to June, there have been nearly 9.7 lakh vehicles that have been registered in Gurugram in which 4.5 lakh were only cars.

Despite such a large number of vehicles in addition to over four lakh vehicles daily coming from Delhi, the city has not created any parking spots and illegal parking continues to be a major problem. "It was in Congress rule where the DPR for metro extension was, however, it was not carried forward by the BJP government. Extending the metro services is the utmost priority," said Sukhbir Kataria, the Gururgam Congress candidate

Sudhir Singla who is the Gurugram BJP candidate said, "the Chief Minister has been personally involved in the extension of Metro, we would make sure that the metro will be extended to other parts of the city."