Delhi seeks special transport fund

With many transport projects gathering dust due to lack of funds, the Delhi government is rallying hard for Urban Transport Development Fund.

With many transport projects gathering dust due to lack of funds, the Delhi government is rallying hard for Urban Transport Development Fund.

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With Lieutenant Governor already rejecting the proposal, the state government has now approached the Union Ministry of Urban Development to allow them to create a dedicated fund for transport projects ahead of the Commonwealth Games 2010.

“We feel the LG’s decision (to reject the proposal) was not correct,” Delhi chief secretary Rakesh Mehta said.

“It has to be there for our plan to have more buses before the Games.”

According to senior transport department officials, several projects are lined up to improve Delhi’s public transport.

A dedicated corpus will help finance such projects — some worth thousands of crores — which otherwise may never see light of the day.

Monorail and Light Rail Transit System (combined cost of Rs 13,000 crore), purchase of about 4,000 low-floor and semi-low-floor buses (Rs 200 crore), six BRT corridors (Rs 1,800 crore), upgradation of four existing interstate bus
terminals, construction of two new inter-state bus terminals and construction of more than 30 bus depots are some of the projects that require huge investments.

“We depend on Centre schemes and funds to execute such projects. A dedicated corpus would ensure major projects are not held back,” a senior transport department official said.