14 yrs in works, Signature Bridge set to be inaugurated tomorrow E-bus trial kicks off, tenders likely by Dec
NEWDELHI: Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Friday invited the general public to witness a “civil engineering spectacle” as the much-awaited Signature Bridge over the Yamuna in northwest Delhi is inaugurated on Sunday.
The bridge will be thrown open for the public on Monday.
“We want to appeal to people of Delhi to come to the inauguration ceremony. There will get the opportunity to see how the bridge without a pillar works. It will be followed by a laser show,” Sisodia said after inspecting the infrastructure project on Friday.
The bridge is being projected as India’s first asymmetrical cable-stayed bridge and was pitched as an iconic project for the Capital.
After Sunday’s inauguration, the bridge will be finally thrown open for public on Monday —14 years after it was conceptualised. Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Sisodia would be attending Sunday’s event.
The bridge will reduce the travel time between north and northeast Delhi and will be developed into a tourist spot in the second phase of its development, Sisodia said on Friday.
“From the top of the bridge, the people of Delhi will be able to enjoy a panoramic view of the city, like people can from the Eiffel Tower (in Paris). The people will be taken to the top of the bridge in four elevators with a total capacity of carrying 50 people,” he said.
“It will serve as a tourist destination with the 154-metre-high glass box which is double the height of Qutub Minar,” Sisodia said.
Announced i n 2004, the bridge was initially estimated to cost around ₹494 crore. Later, it was projected to be completed at a modified estimate of ₹1,131 crore ahead of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, which were held in Delhi.
But since then, the project missed several deadlines and the cost eventually inflated to ₹1,594 crore.
The bridge will share the burden of vehicular traffic currently borne by the Wazirabad Bridge. NEWDELHI: The Delhi government on Friday started running an electric bus on trial basis and said tenders for 1,000 such buses could be floated as early as December.
The bus, manufactured at Rewari in Haryana, will run on route number 522, covering areas such as Ambedkar Nagar, Sheikh Sarai-ii, Siri Fort, Defence Colony, Lodhi Colony, Mandir Marg, Rajendra Place and Inderpuri.
“The trial run will be instrumental in understanding how modern low-floor pure electric buses adapt to Delhi’s road conditions, how efficient their batteries are and how quickly they can be deployed at our required scale,” said transport minister Kailash Gahlot, after flagging off the bus from Delhi Secretariat.
The minister also said tender for 1,000 e-buses could be floated next month as the Delhi Inte- grated Multi Modal Transit System (DIMTS) is scheduled to submit its study report on the project by the end of this month. “Besides, the transport department has already started construction of electric bus depots in the city. The charging infrastructure is expected to be completed by June, 2019. So, the first batch of electric buses is expected to be deployed and fully operational by July,” Gahlot said.
The trial run of the 33-seater bus will be conducted for three months. The bus is equipped with safety features such as four CCTV cameras, panic buttons, and a DC fast charging facility capable of fully charging the bus within 30 minutes. “Its energy consumption amounts to around 1.2 kwh per km, estimated at ₹7 per km. We expect a few other manufacturers to provide their latest electric bus models for trial runs as well in the coming days,” the minister said.