BRT, nightmare of Delhi government

The dream Bus Rapid Corridor (BRT) has turned out as a disaster, with no solution to traffic jam even on third day of its trial.

The four lane, 5.6 km long, one of its kind BRT corridor from Moolchand to Ambedkar Nagar has raised embarrassing situation for Delhi government with faulty signals which has taken six long years and an investment of Rs 215 crores.

Uncomfortable with the chaos of the commuters, Delhi Government called for an emergency meeting on Tuesday morning and decided to remove blue line buses.

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said: “For the moment, we are going to remove all the blue lines from that corridor and bring in DTC buses.”

“The stakeholders have also been asked to intensify their efforts during peak hours,” added Dikshit with a tone of hope.

She also revealed her plan to phase out blue line buses by replacing them with low floor DTC busses or ordinary buses.

“Work on all other BRT has been stalled till the government is satisfied with the first BRT project. We are reviewing the situation and trying to overcome difficulties resulting in long traffic jams,” she later told the waiting media persons.

Reportedly the government has blamed faulty signal cycle which causes the mayhem. Reflecting on the same Chief Secretary Rakesh Mehta said, “The inefficient electronic signal cycle was a major reason for the chaos as CMS could not make it work. The chief of the company has come to Delhi and it will be set right in the next 48-72 hrs.”

BRT having been successful in 80 countries has failed to satisfy Delhi commuters, Delhi became 81st such place to have BRT. BRT provides higher quality of service to the commuters.

Earlier government allowed autos and taxis in dedicated bus lanes which aggravated the situation; four lane corridors dedicated each for two wheelers, bus, cars and cycles did not have the followers and even cars were seen along with bikes. However, after being noticed hundreds of them were prosecuted while several licenses of Bluelines were suspended. Even cattle were seen strolling on the road causing the roadblocks.

The echo was heard in parliament too where Chandra Mitra told the Rajya Sabha that eight people have died and several injured in BRT, he asked scrapping of the allocated grants for other BRT and divert the funds in other developmental work.

But whether it is an ill conceived plan or a complete failure; depends on the coming few days after the faulty signals as well as traffic will be disciplined and proper strategy has to be mooted to run the services smoothly.