SC notice to Centre on decongestion of roads

The Supreme Court on Monday expressed concern over growing vehicular traffic and issued notice to the Centre on framing guidelines for decongestion of roads.

The Supreme Court on Monday expressed concern over growing vehicular traffic and issued notice to the Centre on framing guidelines for decongestion of roads.

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An apex court bench headed by Justice Dalveer Bhandari gave two weeks time to the Centre for its response to a PIL alleging traffic jam across the country, particularly in metros, was leading to serious health problems.

Petitioner Sanjay Kulshrestra, a doctor, urged the court to intervene contending the government had failed to preserve rights of pedestrians to have safe and clean environment.

"Guidelines should be formulated for decongestion of roads by curbing number of personal vehicles," he pleaded, adding that around 5.2 lakh people were dying because of air pollution.

According to Kulshrestra the urban air pollution around 5,27,700 people were are dying.

"Pedestrians are losing their rights to clean and safe roads as there has been huge increase in the number of traffic," he mentioned in his petition. He added that there were around 14.5 crore motorised vehicles on roads up to March 11 last year.