AAP for underpasses to reduce traffic jams

In an attempt to smoothen the vehicular movement, the AAP government is seriously considering construction of underpasses near all the flyovers in the national capital. The government has already in principle agreed to construct an underpass near Ashram Chowk to ease massive traffic jams in the area.

A highly-placed source said that the government was seriously considering to construct underpasses near flyovers to ensure smooth traffic flow all across the city. But the underpasses would not be constructed near flyovers which are in proximity to underground Metro rail service.

The source said that the government would soon conduct a survey to spot areas where underpasses could immediately be constructed to smoothen the traffic flow in those areas. The city has as many as 800 flyovers.

Experts think even if half of these flyovers have underpasses, it would ease the traffic on the city roads. Experts feel that on an average one underpass would cost anything between '70 crore and '100 crore.

“Once the underpasses are in place near the flyovers, it is bound to change the traffic scenario in the city,” a senior PWD officer said.

The government is also seriously considering that the construction of more flyovers would not smoothen traffic-related problems in the city.

A senior bureaucrat said: “We have the maximum roads with maximum lanes in comparison to many cities in the world. But even then we have massive traffic jams. We need to take a holistic approach to address this problem.”

Another official said that the best way to solve the traffic jams was to re-design the road network in the city. He said that the government was seriously considering improving the public transport system to ease the flow of private vehicles on the city roads. “That’s precisely why the government is seriously considering to bring in 5,000 new buses in the city.”