THE HSBC PROJECT … IS IT WORTH RS 160 CRORE ?

For a city that has over 51 lakh vehicles, an addition of about 1,000 vehicles daily can hardly be good news. No matter how much noise the government makes about limiting the number of cars nothing can be achieved.
Even a Supreme Court directive to the state government in July 1999 to increase the bus fleet to 10,000 by 2001 failed to have any effect.
According to Delhi Master Plan 2021, “the period between 1981 and 2001 has been a phenomenal increase in the growth of vehicles and traffic in Delhi. There has been a rise in the percapita trip rate from 0.72 in 1981 to 0.87 in 2001.The population of motor vehicles has increased from 5.13 lakh in 1981 to 32.38 lakh in 2001.It is estimated that the total population will increase to 280 lakh by 2021.

The construction of the high capacity bus corridor between Ambedkar Nagar and Delhi Gate has got commuters fuming. With one third of the available road space being reserved for buses which comprises just 2% of the traffic share, the traffic police fear the corridor will be a nightmare for all road users. While the man behind the project who is facing public ire, claim it would lead to a decrease in the flow of private cars. All that has happened is that the traffic is now crawling leading to more fuel consumption because of idling and the promised gains of segregating buses from the rest of the traffic are hardly visible.
The Press Enclave Marg of South Delhi presents a sad picture of chaos and neglect. A Rs80 lakh project undertaken by PWD which seeks to rebuild the central divider on the road is the biggest contributors to the chaos. While the work, delegated to private contractors has been going on for over a month.
The road space has meanwhile shrunk with debris piled up on both sides of the old divider that has been broken down. The iron girders are sticking out dangerously and the debris has been left lying around while the smaller, plastic bollards are broken, forcing cars to weave around them. This poses to the traffic, particularly at night not to speak of the pedestrians who are as usual risking their lives. The situation is worst during the rush hours when office goers driving past add to the congestion and traffic literally crawls.

The untimely demise of Mayank Gulati a 25yr old entrepreneur due to insanely planned HSBC projects adds to poor and neglected road condition in Delhi. Mayank Gulati according to police came down from the Moolchand flyover on his bike only to hit an unmarked and arbitrary road divider when sent his hurtling. The cops have therefore registered a case of death due to negligence against the authorities responsible for the construction.
VK Agarwal the managing director of RITES made a conference on the High Capacity Bus System that the Rs160crore project has been started without a detailed project report which is mandatory for a big project.
It has been decided that the two ways high capacity bus corridor will be 8metres wide and 4metres either way. Compared with that the two-way lanes on either side for cars, two wheelers, LCVS and the rest will be just 6.6metres wide 3.3metres on either side, sufficient for 2 vehicles abreast at a tight squeeze. But this will lead to more traffic; moreover the bus corridor in the middle will mean bus stops in the middle of the road.
Now should the government still go ahead with the project of Rs160crore??