[sustran] Re: Some sense prevails in case of Delhi BRT

[Alok Jain]

More on the issue today...

HC orders buses back in reserved lane
Other Vehicles Barred From Dedicated Lane, Signalling To Change
For Simultaneous Right Turn
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
New Delhi: This weekend, the Ambedkar Nagar-Moolchand Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor will go back to its original state,
at least for now. Delhi High Court on Tuesday gave a direction that the traffic flow on the corridor should “revert” to what it
was before being altered by a previous order.
This means that the central dedicated lane will once again be reserved for buses and emergency vehicles, and other traffic
won’t be allowed to enter it.
Revoking the court’s earlier interim orders of May 30 and July 5, which had thrown open the bus lanes to all vehicles, a
bench of Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Manmohan Singh ordered the buses back into their reserved lanes. “We
direct that till the writ petition is decided, the traffic flow would revert to its movement / flow as per the BRT Corridor Traffic
Flow System, meaning thereby the traffic which was flowing before its flow was altered under interim orders passed and to
give effect to the same i.e. restoring status quo ante,” the bench said, asking the Delhi transport department to implement the
order by September 15.
The court also asked for a change in the signalling system to allow buses and cars to simultaneously move in the right
direction at the intersections, a measure that was agreed upon by the counsel for both parties. “The signalling pattern will be
changed to simultaneously permit cars and buses to move in the right direction at the intersections and the traffic marshals,
as also the traffic policemen, to put in their best, as the non-bus traffic reaches the crossings, to ensure as far as possible
that cars which have to take a turn in the right direction keep towards the right side of their road segment,” it said.
The court rejected the suggestion to allow motorized and non-motorized vehicles in the BRT corridor with proper signage
and signals, observing that it would be “ impracticable” because of the “indisciplined drivers of motor vehicles in Delhi”. The
bench passed the order after the counsel for the parties agreed that the existing system of all motorised vehicles plying in
bus lanes needed to be changed since this had only caused the traffic situation to worsen.
It took on record the submission by the Delhi government that the revised traffic flow management would be widely
publicized and the corridor will be managed by both traffic marshals and cops. “We take on record the assurance made by
counsel for the Delhi government that necessary signages would be put in place and wide publicity would be given for the
revised traffic flow management and traffic marshals would be brought back as also adequate number of traffic policemen
would be stationed, at least for the first few days, lest chaos reigns in the BRT corridor,” the court said, fixing September 21
as the next date of hearing.
In its order, the court noted that even during the trial run conducted by the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), there
was a “considerable problem” in regulating the traffic at the intersection “for the reason, although very small in number, the
buses which were plying on the left kerb of the road, on reaching the crossing had to wait for the right turn signal and in this
manner hindered the flow of traffic, for the reason the drivers of the vehicles behind would hardly know as to in which
direction the bus would move,” the court said.The bench, was hearing a PIL filed by an NGO, Nyay Bhoomi, for scrapping the
BRT project to ensure smooth traffic movement on the 5.8-km corridor. It is seeking plying of all types of vehicles in the bus
lane on the ground that most of the time bus lanes remain free while the condition in the other lanes, meant for cars and
other vehicles, remains chaotic and people get stuck in jams for hours.
After conducting a trial run allowing mixed traffic to ply in the bus lanes in May, the CRRI had submitted its survey report
criticising the BRT corridor. The Delhi government, however, had opposed the CRRI report.


On 11-Sep-2012, at 11:27 AM, Alok Jain <alok.priyanka at gmail.com> wrote:

> POSER FOR GOVT 
> Can BRT stay with changes,asks HC 
> 
> TIMESNEWSNETWORK 
> 
> New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Monday asked the Delhi government to respond by Tuesday if the Ambedkar Nagar-Moolchand bus rapid transit corridor could be continued with some changes.
> The new bench hearing the case identified problem areas with the controversial corridor and asked the government if it can make changes on it.Observing that the BRT concept and design is not bad,a division bench of Justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Manmohan Singh said,Let us find a mechanism to remove the problem to save BRT. 
> While examining the Central Road Research Institutes (CRRI) survey report criticizing the corridor,the bench said,There is no defect in design but sudden surge of traffic in the middle of the stretch brings a bad name to the entire project. 
> During the hearing,a senior CRRI official,who headed the team that prepared the report,explained to the bench about the procedure the expert body had adopted while conducting the trial run on BRT.After perusing the road map and the data submitted by the road research institute,the bench heard the final argument for more than four hours and said the problem lies with the stretch from Sheikh Sarai to Chirag Dilli,which is only 900m out of the total 5.8km operational stretch.
> The bench said a heavy traffic comes from the Saket side joining the corridor at Sheikh Sarai,and from the Chirag Dilli point,the cars and buses divert to different routes.The court asked the government to find if the buses of route Nos 534 (Anand Vihar-Mehrauli ) and 534A (Anand Vihar-IGI airport ) and some chartered buses could be re-routed to decongest the corridor.Agreeing to the CCRI suggestion that rerouting some buses could solve the problem,HC asked the transport department to convene a meeting and inform it about the outcome by Tuesday.
> The bench,however,dismissed another suggestion that the bus lanes and stops,which are in the middle of the corridor,can be shifted 100m away.If BRT has to remain,bus lanes can not be shifted as it will create chaos. it said,asking the government to explore possibility if slip roads could be made to divert the traffic from the Saket side.The court will hear the case again on Tuesday.