City roads to be redesigned for smooth traffic flow: CM

CM Arvind Kejriwal shared several projects in the pipeline, including ensuring roundthe-clock supply of water in Delhi within next five years and roping in private players in improving public transport facilities

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on Wednesday that the roads in the national capital will soon be redesigned to deal with the problem of traffic congestion.

Mr Kejriwal shared several projects in the pipeline, including ensuring round-the-clock supply of water in Delhi within next five years and roping in private players in improving public transport facilities.

The chief minister made the announcements at “Dilli ki soch” event organised by Assocham, where the panelists spoke about governance and development of the city.

“The traffic situation in Delhi can be improved to a larger extent. Like the roads in Delhi are broad, but a four-lane road converges into a three-lane road at some distance and further expands into a six lane road, this is where the problem is and there is a need to redesign the roads.”

“The problem in Delhi is existence of too many agencies. We had earlier planned to redesign nine major roads but it took four years to hire international consultants and go through the required processes. Now that its done, we will announce the complete plan soon,” he said.

Mr Kejriwal said the government is also working on roping in private players in the transport sector. “Within next fortnight the plan will be announced, we will rope in 3,000-4,000 private buses to be used as public transport. If we will provide good buses, people will choose them over private cars. There will also be a mobile application to track the location of the buses,” he said.

“We are also working on a phased plan in which round the clock supply of water will be available in Delhi in the next five years. We have already achieved the target for electricity and only few transformers need to be replaced,” Mr Kejriwal said.