An “isolated effort” rife with “structural and engineering flaws”, the graduallly fading South Delhi Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor is rife with lessons for governments that make a similar attempt in the future, experts said.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, which ordered the dismantling of the 5.8-km-long corridor within months of assuming power followed by an announcement that two elevated versions of it were in the offing, would do well to learn from the erstwhile Congress-led regime’s mistakes when it comes to the urban mobility system, said experts.
This fiscal, the AAP government, which has planned an outlay of Rs. 2,208 crore — or 11 per cent of the total plan outlay for the fiscal — for the enhancement of road infrastructure in the Capital, has planned two elevated BRT corridors — one from Anand Vihar Terminal to Peeragarhi (29-km-long East-West Corridor) and the other from Wazirabad to the IGI Airport (24-km-long North-South Corridor).
Many mistakes
According to Dr. S. Velmurugan, senior principal scientist at CSIR-CRRI, the BRT didn’t work in Delhi because it was an isolated effort.
“It was an open BRT and not part of a longer corridor spanning 15 to 20 km as is the practice around the world; buses could enter and leave at different junctions triggering congestion and choking these points for instance at the Saket and Chirag Delhi junctions,” Dr. Velmurugan said.
The location of the corridor, according to Dr. K. Ravinder, senior scientist at CSIR-CRRI, was a significant bane in terms of its inherent capacity.
Next time
“This corridor was catering to a lot of traffic, which is why it was mostly choked. Though the BRT concept is very good it will work where it is not over-saturated and has better traffic signal control,” Dr. Ravinder said, adding that peripheral areas or locations with relatively lesser traffic, such as Rohini and Dwarka, were better suited for the concept.
Road and design expert Professor Dr. P.K. Sarkar of the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), who termed the corridor a “pseudo BRT”, said design and engineering flaws such as limited turn radius and restricted right of way were responsible for congestion.
“The BRT was a mess in planning, design and implementation; the right of way was around 30 metres or less in many places instead of the internationally recommended 50 metres,” Dr. Sarkar said.
Arguing that the implementation of the project was carried out “without adequate public consent”, Dr. Sarkar said any similar attempts in the future needed to be based primarily on it, in addition to safety audits keeping the welfare of pedestrians in mind.
The BRT was a mess in planning, design and implementation, future projects need to keep this in mindProfessor Dr. PK Sarkar,Road and design expert
