‘Additional 3.8 lakh cars led to congestion’

Analysing the cause of congestion during the second phase of the odd-even scheme, a Delhi government panel in its report said traffic crawled in the national capital between April 15 and 30 as lakhs of private, as well as CNG vehicles, that were not present during its first phase, plied on the city roads as schools functioned and the CNG-fitted cars increased.

“There was an additional volume of 388,886 cars (including private cars, car pooling and around 30,000 additional CNG vehicles), 134,598 two-wheelers and 8,000 buses, which was not there during the first phase,” according to the report submitted to city transport minister Gopal Rai on Wednesday.

Observing that there was “more congestion,” the six-member committee, headed by special commissioner (transport) K.K. Dahiya, identified major construction activities, ongoing dismantling of the BRT corridor and negligible reduction of traffic entering from Noida and Gurgaon as key factors behind clogged roads between April 15-30.

Mr Rai had formed the panel on April 23 to study the impact of opening of schools and hot weather on the second phase of the scheme under which odd and even numbered cars ply on alternate days, following complaints of congestion on the city roads.

Stating that the scheme was “largely successful” since car owners had voluntarily complied, the report pointed to nine additional factors that resulted in more congestion on the roads.

A large volume of vehicles on the roads in and around schools led to congestion in a radius extending up to five to six km, the report said and concluded, based on a sample survey carried out in six schools, that a “very high percentage” of students used cars and other private vehicles to reach the institutes.

“Construction activity at Bhairon Marg, Rao Tula Ram Marg and dismantling of BRT Corridor are found to be a major bottlenecks that disrupted the traffic adversely and had a cascading effect in a radius of almost 8 to 10 km.”

The panel members also obtained data from the authorities of DND and NH-8 and found that there was an average reduction of “only 12 per cent” of total vehicles coming from Noida.