NEW DELHI: In a first, the Delhi government has decided to make a comprehensive transport policy that will work as the blueprint for all development works in the city. A senior government official said that plans are afoot to float a global tender to hire a consultant for the project.
“Since several years now, Delhi has had a piecemeal approach to transport planning with multiplicity of agencies. Each agency conducts its own surveys and implements projects with little consultation between each other. If we had a comprehensive transport policy, a kind of blueprint for an action plan, both planning and implementation would be easier,” said the official.
Officials in the transport department, which is spearheading the project, said that all agencies building infrastructure, including PWD, Delhi Traffic Police, civic agencies, DIMTS, Delhi Development Authority, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation and non-governmental agencies like CSE, have been roped in to help draw up the terms of reference for the global tender.
CSE’s Ashok Bhattacharjee said, “A comprehensive transport plan for Delhi was last attempted in 2008, when RITES conducted the Travel Forecast Demand Study . However, that was never implemented in entirety, especially as the study had several shortcomings like not taking into account non-motorised transport. That’s one of the reasons why we are helping the government establish precise terms of reference so that the study will be comprehensive.”
As part of the terms of reference (TOR) for the study , all parts of transport planning, including parking, road planning, pedestrianisation, public transport, cycling and walking tracks, tackling pollution, etc, will be elaborated on. The terms of reference are still being worked out.”We will bring out the global tender once the terms of reference has been finalised.DIMTS is the technical consultant for the project,” said an official with the transport department. Delhi has a Master Plan as well as an urban transport policy as reference, which Bhattarcharjee says are not comprehensive action plans but rather policy documents.”The major takeaway from the last study was the BRT, which didn’t get implemented properly. The new study will not just look at BRT but a complete transport solution for the long term. The study will identify and suggest solutions for congestion and pollution plaguing the city,” he added.
Transport minister Gopal Rai has been talking about the need for a unified transport authority as well. He had earlier suggested setting up of a unified body that would oversee infrastructure planning in Delhi after getting complaints about multiplicity of authority.