It is the failure or unwillingness of the authorities to encourage segregation of the slow and the fast moving traffic on the roads that has compounded the chaos on the roads -Tukoji R Pandit Anyone who keeps his eyes wide open instead of focusing his gaze narrowly would have anticipated the outcry that followed the completion of a 5.6 km stretch of the Bus Rapid Transport corridor in south Delhi. It is quite common in Delhi (and dare one say the rest of the country) for the government to take up what they think are people-oriented projects and discover their flaws only after executing them. Nobody cares to take a full-vision, broader view at the inception stage. To illustrate the point recall the number of big residential complexes built in Delhi by government agencies that quickly attracted a lot of flak the moment people started occupying the houses. Apparently, it had never crossed the minds of the executing authorities (there are always more than one to complicate matters) that people who move into a brand new housing complex need certain amenities like water and electricity, adequate network of streets that are well-lit at night and a public transport system that connects it to the rest of the city, not to mention facilities like schools, shopping centres, parks and hospital. Forget the people in the still developing 'sub-city' of Dwarka, people in some of the earlier developed residential areas in east Delhi-the part of Delhi that will host Delhi's biggest show ever, the Commonwealth Games in 2010---still live without some of these facilities. Let it be said that the criticism of the BRT corridor in the media and by politicians does not make it a bad concept. There are many cities in different parts of the world, developed as well as developing countries, which have opted for the BRT corridor and have found it working well. The BRT corridor in Delhi is supposed to be modelled after the Bogota (Colombia) BRT and a minister from that far way Latin American country, on a visit to Delhi, offered assistance by flying in experts. The Delhi government wisely declined the offer. It was certainly not intended to be a snub for the Colombian minister. It was probably to save further loss of face by the Delhi government and all those associated with the BRT project. What solutions can any expert, foreign or Indian, offer for improving the traffic flow in the BRT corridor when there has been no effort to end the Jungle Raj that prevails over roads in Delhi? The 'mixed' nature of traffic on Delhi roads and the sheer volume of motorised vehicles in Delhi cannot explain or justify the unruly scenes on the roads. It is the failure or unwillingness of the authorities to encourage segregation of the slow and the fast moving traffic on the roads that has compounded the chaos on the roads, along with a casual approach towards those who violate road rules with impunity. The so-called drives by the traffic police seem to be aimed at publicity and a necessity for meeting 'targets' for the number of prosecutions. The New Delhi of the colonial days had clear paths for pedestrians and cyclists. All of them have been encroached upon. There may be a speed limit in the city, but every vehicle on the road, from the slow bicycle, peppy motorbikes to swanky cars and monster buses, is perennially trying to over take each other without any fear. At road junctions, two-wheelers and auto-rickshaws enjoy the 'right' to stop at the zebra crossing meant exclusively for the pedestrian. All this happens within the knowledge of the police and other authorities. All the criticism against the BRT corridor appears to be related to the fact that while motorists have to waste considerably longer time to traverse the distance, no consideration has been shown for the safety and convenience of pedestrians. And, of course, the private buses, auto-rickshaws, two-wheelers and cyclists continue to defy all rules and norms as they always do when in the BRT corridor. Not that the motorists in Delhi are any better. The half-vision approach to important projects is also illustrated by the Delhi government's unlimited fondness for 'flyovers'. A large number of them have been built and many more are in the offing. It is all being done in the mistaken notion that flyovers will end traffic congestion in Delhi and assure speedy movement of vehicles on the roads. Though some traffic experts seem to think differently, the concept of flyovers as such is not flawed. The point is majority of the flyovers in Delhi have failed to ease congestion on roads, especially at road junctions. It is because these flyovers were designed without taking into consideration the fact that traffic does not always move in one direction; at road junctions it moves in different directions. A flyover may take care of, let us say, traffic moving in the east-west direction, but what about the traffic that moves from, say, east to north or north to south. Multi-level flyovers take care of traffic moving in different directions but Delhi has been far too niggardly in constructing such flyovers. If one has been able to read the minds of people who run Delhi their sole concern has been to ensure 'uninterrupted' flow of traffic along only one road, the Ring Road. But there are hundreds of roads that meet Ring Road on the way, each with nearly as much heavy traffic as the Ring Road. Bus stands at either end of the flyovers add to bottlenecks at the Ring Road while commuters waiting at these bus stops risk becoming easy prey for the Blue Line and predators and other road maniacs. Now the Delhi government says it will build foot over-bridges along the BRT corridor for pedestrians, unmindful of the fate of the ones already built in the city. The foot over-bridges have proved to be singularly unpopular in Delhi, probably because of people's reluctance to take the long climb to reach them when they can in Delhi's typically undisciplined style walk across the road at will. Even the sub-ways are not exactly very popular though one reason would appear to be their deplorable upkeep; some of them have become shelters for the junkies and 'anti-social' elements. But where the traffic is heavy the subways are used by a lot of people. That should be a good enough reason to prefer subways to foot over-bridges. But the masters of Delhi will not see it that way. They will not mind wasting public money by building something that nobody will use. The BRT corridor will be used no matter how loud the howls against it; but the point is will it meet the objective of ensuring smooth run of traffic? Syndicate Features