Delhi civic bodies to clear choke points at 61 Metro stations

Delhi’s three municipal corporations are preparing decongestion plans for 61 of the 206 metro stations in the national capital, which have become the choke points owing to haphazard parking and encroachments.

The move comes over a month after chief secretary Vijay Dev formed 12 committees to identify the most congested stations and prepare area-specific plans to unclog public spaces around the city’s transit modes.

The ‘Multi Modal Transport Integration’ Plan (MMT) will cover the busy Blue, Yellow and Red Lines apart from the Violet, Green and Pink Lines, which have comparatively lower ridership. Municipal officials said the plan involves mapping the station complexes, identifying problem areas and preparing ‘parking and traffic movement plans’ for each. These plans will be submitted by March 31.

HT, on January 7, had reported that the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs headed by former minister P Chidambaram had sought from the Delhi government its plans to decongest traffic. HT, on January 9, had reported on the CS forming the committees to prepare decongestion plans.

The South MCD said it is targeting 49 metro stations in Phase I that span from Delhi Gate to Badarpur Border, INA to Hazrat Nizamuddin and Nehru Enclave to Kalindi Kunj, among others.

“With Delhi Metro’s popularity growing, managing traffic and the crowd around stations has become tough. As a result, even regular commuters are shifting to private modes of transport,” said Prem Shankar Jha, deputy commissioner, remunerative project cell, South MCD.

“The plan includes designating lanes for app-based cabs, taxis, e-rickshaws, cycle rickshaws, DTC buses, DMRC buses and bikes at each station. We are focusing on both ‘mobility and walkability’ by fixing pedestrian and cycle pathways too,” he said.

The north MCD is aiming five stations as of now — Shalimar Bagh and Netaji Subhash Place Metro Station in their Keshavpuram Zone, and Inderlok and Red Fort Metro Stations in City Zone. A senior officer in the north MCD said, “Apart from designating lanes for various vehicles, we will focus on creating vendor lanes and zones. This is because, at stations like Red Fort, we have dozens of vendors hawking eatables, balloons, souvenirs, etc.”

The east MCDis focusing on the Red and Blue lines. In the former, two stations are on agenda, East Azad Nagar and Krishna Nagar, and on the Blue Line, the stations from Laxmi Nagar to Anand Vihar.

Aman Rajput, assistant commissioner, remunerative and project cell, EDMC, said, “We have maximum traffic on Vikas Marg and in Gandhi Nagar due to the presence of commercial hubs, markets and metro stations.”

“To decongest these areas, we have invited tenders for newly identified authorised parking sites. Also, we have put up maps of our existing parking sites on the EDMC mobile app,” he said.

For effective implementation of the project, each committee will have representation from eight agencies— the DMRC, PWD Delhi Development Authority, Delhi Traffic Police, New Delhi Municipal Council and MCDs.

Sewa Ram of Delhi’s School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), said, “This is a very important exercise. As such, DMRC has not focused on creating organised parking outside its stations except those at terminals like Dwarka. This is because they don’t own land like DDA and traffic is not their priority.”