Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal meets PWD officials to discuss road redesigning project

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday (December 15) chaired a review meeting with the PWD officials on the ongoing road redesigning project in Delhi along the lines of European cities.

CM Kejriwal directed the officials to remove all obstacles under the project to redesign the 540 kms of identified roads of Delhi. He said that the process of designing the roads should be done in a swift manner and the project should be completed within the stipulated deadline.

The PWD officials said that the process of appointing a consultant for the redesigning of roads has been completed. The consultant is responsible for preparing and submitting a Detailed Project Report (DPR) by February 2021, based on which the tenders will be given and the operations to design the 540 kms of roads will begin by June 2021.

The chief minister said that the process of the DPR should be completed as soon as possible for rapid progress of the project, as it needs to be completed in two years. The deadline for redesigning the entire 540 kms stretch is early 2023.

PWD Minister Satyendar Jain, Secretary PWD, PWD engineer-in-chief and various other PWD officials were also present in the review meeting chaired by CM Shri Arvind Kejriwal at Delhi Secretariat.

The Delhi government is working to redesign the 100 feet wide and 540 km long roads of the national capital on the lines of European cities. CM Kejriwal has envisaged the project to develop the roads of the national capital, Delhi, similar to any developed country in the world.

CM Kejriwal approved the project of redesigning some of the roads falling under the jurisdiction of PWD in November 2019. Under the pilot project, the Delhi government has decided to redesign 100 feet wide and 500 kilometers on the lines of European cities.

CM Kejriwal recently redeveloped the Chandni chowk road as a pilot project, extending the scheme to 100 feet wide and about 500 km long road in Delhi. The development of these roads will be on the lines of the Built-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model and the construction company will take care of the maintenance for 15 years.

Redesigning to solve various issues through proper planning and mapping

People face issues because there are bottleneck roads, which create the problem of traffic congestion at various locations in the city. The wide roads in many parts of Delhi differently turn into a narrow road, and then back into a wide road after a few km, which creates a bottleneck situation and heavy traffic at particular locations. The priority will be removing those bottlenecks first, for a smooth flow of traffic and an organized lane system.

The second goal would be to increase the efficiency of the existing space of the roads in the city so that spaces are best utilized as per their abilities. There will be measured and planned spaces for vehicles, non-motorized vehicles, footpaths, and side-lanes. The footpaths will be widely mapped to an average of 10 feet for the convenience of the pedestrians. These footpaths will be redesigned and reconstructed as per a standard height for the convenience of the physically handicapped.

The project will help increase greenery, re-harvesting system will be implemented in the sewer drains*

There will be separate spaces for the planting of trees on the sides of the footpaths. There will be separate parking spaces for the electric vehicles and auto-rickshaws alongside the footpaths. The slope of the roads, as well as the drains, will be redesigned to tackle the problem of waterlogging on the roads. Rainwater harvesting structures will be built inside the drainage systems to store rainwater as groundwater.

No surface will be left unpaved or unescaped for dust control

Not even an inch of the surface of any road or roadside will be left uncovered, in order to ensure that there is no dust on the roads. Adequate grasses and shrubs will be planted on all surfaces to ensure dust control.

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The following facilities will be developed

- Parking for rickshaws

- Separate parking spaces

- Green Belt

- Open spaces for public

- Cycle lanes

- Pedestrian lanes

- Different types of designs will be displayed on the walls by the road

- If there is a park next to the road, it not be covered by the walls, so that the beauty of the park can be visible from the road.