ITO: Delhi govt to commission study on reducing snarls

The government, on Tuesday, floated a tender in connection with the study and the bids shall close on August 24. HT has seen the tender document.

The Delhi government has decided to commission a feasibility study aimed at reducing vehicular congestion in the chaotic ITO area in central Delhi. The study will propose ways to redesign the junction, if needed, said a senior government official on Wednesday.

Vehicular congestion at ITO. The junction is one of the busiest in the city. (raj k raj/ht photo)

The government, on Tuesday, floated a tender in connection with the study and the bids shall close on August 24. HT has seen the tender document.

Once the work order is issued, the study is supposed to be completed within five months. The objective of the study is to propose changes in road designs, prepare a road map to implement the proposed changes, and survey traffic volume and pedestrian volume in different points of time, read the tender document.

The study is supposed to include a road inventory analysis under which shops, parking areas, etc. will be identified and re-organised. For instance, on-street and off-street parking areas will be designated and properly marked with signages, said a senior official in the public works department, who did not wish to be identified.

The official further said the study would delve deep into components such as arterial roads, service roads, footpaths, bus stops, location of public amenities, street furniture, drainage and landscaping.

Traffic from six major stretches—Mathura Road, Tilak Marg, Sikandra Road, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg and Indraprastha Marg—converges at the ITO junction. The junction is one of the busiest in the city at any time of the day.

Elaborating on the scope of the feasibility study, the tender document which pegged the cost of the project at ₹30 lakh—said that it should provide a “comprehensive solution” that addresses the needs of vehicles, ensures safe movement of pedestrians and seamless traffic flow at the junction.

A PWD official, requesting anonymity, said that a skywalk had come up in the area in 2018 and it helped the traffic situation to some extent.

“The traffic volume count during peak hours will be a major component of the proposed study. Another survey would be needed to identify patterns of traffic directions (in terms of origin and destination) at different points in time,” the PWD official said.

The official further said, “The study will also help to ascertain how traffic is affected by VIP movements, sport events and protests. It is expected to cover an area of 4km. The outcome of the ITO decongestion plan, along with the ongoing Pragati Maidan redevelopment project, which includes a traffic circulation plan around Mathura Road, Purana Qila Road, Bhairon Marg and the Ring Road, will result in holistically decongesting all these stretches.”

Considered one of the busiest intersections in the national capital, the ITO area witnesses snarls regularly. The peak hours are worse.

“We have been taking measures to regulate traffic in the area. A government-sanctioned traffic study from 2017 suggests that nearly 4.5 lakh vehicles pass the junction throughout the day, but that study does not provide exact data about traffic flow at different tim,” said S Velmurugan, chief scientist at the traffic engineering and safety division in the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI).

He further said, “The study should also consider pedestrian issues in the area. Measures such as the construction of a 1.2km-long tunnel between Purana Qila Road and Ring Road along with six underground U-turns on Mathura Road, Bhairon Marg and Ring Road will decongest the ITO crossing and W-point near Pragati Maidan. These measures should come up at the earliest. Delay only aggravates the problem.”

Since 2003, the Delhi government and several agencies such as the traffic police, Unified Traffic and Transportation Infrastructure (Planning and Engineering) Centre, and CRRI, have conducted several studies and proposed numerous plans to decongest the ITO junction. The latest attempt comes around two months after the Delhi Police is learnt to have urged the government’s public work department to do a holistic study.