Bus Rapid Transit corridors to be back in Delhi?

New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party ordered the dismantling of South Delhi’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor earlier in January. The 5.8-km-long corridor between Ambedkar Nagar and Moolchand — which was meant to allow buses to shuttle commuters through a lane free of traffic lights — was constructed by the government of former chief minister Sheila Dikshit.

Now, only remnants of the corridor remain. The BRT corridor was mired in controversy ever since it became operational in 2008 as heavy traffic jams became common. Traffic congestion has considerably reduced after dismantling of the corridor. But despite the failure of the city’s maiden BRT corridor, the Delhi government has been making a strong pitch for elevated BRT corridors.

In this year’s Budget, the Arvind Kejriwal government proposed two elevated corridors, one along Anand Vihar Terminal to Peeragarhi (East-West Corridor, 29 km) and the other from Wazirabad to Airport (North-South Corridor, 24 km). The government also appointed consultants for conducting a feasibility study and preparation of corridor improvement plan. On successful implementation of the two elevated BRT corridors, the government wants to implement it across Delhi. But experts caution that the government should do better planning as elevated corridors will be way more costly to build. The government incurred an estimated cost of Rs 25 crore in scrapping the Rs 150 crore BRT.