Temporary design changes make Delhi Gate crossing safer for pedestrians: Study
The Delhi Gate intersection in central Delhi is one of the busiest intersections in the Capital with high pedestrian footfall due to its proximity to residential neighbourhoods located in the Walled City areas, commercial centres and offices, sports stadium, educational institutions and two major hospitals on Asaf Ali road.
Officials from the Delhi Traffic Police said the intersection at the Delhi Gate has become more convenient, safe and pedestrian-friendly, two months after they started a trial run at the intersection, in collaboration with World Resources Institute (WRI), India, by introducing road design changes. The Delhi traffic police is in the process of finalising the findings of the trial run and propose necessary infrastructure changes needed at the intersection.

Veenu Bansal, additional commissioner of police (traffic), said, “The trial run has shown promising results. The street design interventions have helped in making the intersection more convenient and safe for pedestrians. The trial run has also shown that with the proposed changes, the vehicular traffic load can get cleared very easily. We will submit the observations in the report and the decision regarding implementation of infrastructure changes will be taken at the competent level.”
The Delhi Gate intersection in central Delhi is one of the busiest intersections in the Capital with high pedestrian footfall due to its proximity to residential neighbourhoods located in the Walled City areas, commercial centres and offices, sports stadium, educational institutions and two major hospitals on Asaf Ali road. The pedestrian footfall is also high as the Delhi Gate metro station on the violet line-- an important pedestrian node for the surrounding areas--is also nearby.
In April, the traffic police and the WRI India, which is helping analyse the major blackspots in Delhi, started the trial run at the Delhi Gate intersection. WRI India recently submitted the draft report to Delhi traffic police.
The intersection is crucial as it connects the Old Delhi area with New Delhi. It also connects the New Delhi Railway station with the Ring Road. It is surrounded by major arterial roads such as Asaf Ali Road, Jawahar Lal Nehru Marg (west- east), Netaji Subash Marg, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg (north -south).
Explaining the problems at the intersection, Amit Bhatt, director transport at WRI India, said, “The pedestrian movement is high at the intersection due to the type of developments around it. As per our assessment, 99% of the people living in the vicinity prefer to walk and access various modes of public transport near this intersection. The intersection has become dangerous for pedestrians due to unequal road width and alignment, no dedicated space for pedestrians to stand while manoeuvring the traffic at the intersection. The increase in width of the carriageways near the intersections makes it difficult for pedestrians to cross it in the limited time available.”
During the trial, some basic design changes were introduced to create more and safe space for pedestrians.
Bhatt said, “Earlier, the intersection was very wide. We have made it more compact by reworking on the turning radius of the road at the intersection. We also reworked on the carriageways by rebalancing the lane width and numbers. This streamlining is helping in faster clearing of traffic load at the intersection at a safe speed. The uneven road width used to result in traffic bottlenecks earlier.”
As per the study done by WRI India, nearly 51% people either walk or use public transport. Bhatt added, “We have provided huge corner Islands and efficient median islands. As part of the trial, we had painted the pedestrian zones and put bollards to demarcate lands. The study in the past few months has shown that pedestrians find the crossing much safer now. If these design changes are made permanent, then it will solve the problem to a large extent. The tactical to permanent approach is something that Delhi can adopt for all such road projects.”

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