The Delhi government said that the task force has identified 77 "congested corridors" in the city (File)
The Delhi government today informed the Supreme Court about the timeline for removal of traffic bottlenecks at 77 "congested corridors" and said short term measures, like minor improvements in road geometrics to deal with the issue would take six to eight months.
Elaborating the measures for removing these bottlenecks, the AAP government said these have been categorised as "short term" and "long term" measures and also gave reasons for traffic congestion in the national capital.
In its affidavit filed in the top court, the Delhi government said that under the long-term measures, six months time would be taken for approval of schemes and sanction of estimates for construction of subways, foot over bridges (FoBs), underpasses and u-turns and after grant of approval, another 12 months would be needed for execution of work.
"It is submitted that the measures to remove the above mentioned bottlenecks are categorised as short term measures and long term measures. The short term measures like minor improvements in road geometrics etc would take six to eight months," it said.
"However the long term measures like FOB/subway/underpass /u-turn etc would take six months for approval of the scheme and sanction of the estimates. Thereafter, 12 months for execution after approval," the affidavit said.
Advocate Wasim A Qadri, appearing for the Delhi government, mentioned the matter today before a bench comprising justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta and said that they be allowed to file the affidavit. The bench allowed Mr Qadri's request.
In its affidavit, the Delhi government said that the task force has identified 77 "congested corridors" in the national capital and has put them in three categories.
It said that under category 'A', there were 28 highly congested corridors while category 'B' has 30 congested corridors.
The rest 19 "less congested" corridors were placed under category 'C', it said.
The Delhi government's affidavit said that the Delhi Traffic Police has identified several "main causes" for congestion, which included encroachment on roads and on the footpaths, encroachment on central verge, illegal parking on roads, less width of roads, irregular pedestrian movement across roads and improper junction or intersection design.
The affidavit said that other causes of congestion were -- parking of vehicle on narrow lanes leading to petrol pumps and CNG stations, presence of trees, toilet and other structures infringing with traffic movement, non-availability of FoBs, subways, pedestrian crossings, u-turns, underpasses for vehicular movement and improper road geometrics.
"It is humbly submitted that the above mentioned timeline is for the remaining long term projects. The answering respondent (Delhi government) has already filed the list of certain long term projects for decongestion of Delhi road (like construction of flyovers/underpass etc) which have been completed in earlier affidavit," it said.
The top court had on July 9 took umbrage that there was no appearance on behalf of Delhi Government during the hearing and no substantive status report was filed by them as per May 10 order asking them to file status report indicating the time-line for removal of traffic bottlenecks.
"There are several bottlenecks which need to be taken care of in respect of traffic issues but it appears that the government of Delhi is not at all concerned with this issue," the bench had said in its July 9 order.
The court had adjourned the matter on July 9 subject to payment of cost of Rs 1 lakh by the Delhi government.
In its affidavit filed today, the Delhi government said that due to "some communication gap" a representation on their behalf could not be made before the bench on July 9.
It has said that cost of Rs 1 lakh has been deposited by them "well within time".
The bench was earlier informed that six task forces have been set up to look into the issue of traffic bottlenecks in several corridors in Delhi.
Delhi government had told the bench that such corridors have been classified under three categories and at present, steps were being taken with respect to 11 out of 28 corridors falling under category A.