To avoid BRT jams, cars continue to enter bus lanes

NEW DELHI: The Ambedkar Nagar-Moolchand bus rapid transit (BRT) corridor is back to being a slow stretch for cars and two-wheelers. On Wednesday, there were traffic jams between 9am and 11am at various junctions across the corridor. A lot of vehicles continued to drive through the bus lanes to avoid getting caught in the jam.
The Delhi Integrated Multi Modal Transit System (DIMTS) spokesperson argued that cars and two-wheelers will have to slow down and that cannot be avoided.“If the commuters take the Outer Ring Road, they will find traffic jams there also,” he said. DIMTS is also proposing to implement a new link from Outer Ring Road to Press Enclave, to divert traffic from the Sheikh Sarai-Chirag Dilli stretch.
Commuters said that the mixed traffic pattern would at least allow them to cover the stretch faster. “I have been travelling on this route since the time they started building the BRT. This road has completely transformed. It’s extremely congested now,” said Saurabh, who works with HCL.
Another regular commuter, Shriya Sharma, a student, said that she was stranded for over 20 minutes on Wednesday morning between Greater Kailash and Andrews Ganj. “It’s very tiring. We don’t have the patience to wait for the traffic to clear. I completely understand why people are entering into bus lanes. I don’t think it’s safe to have these lanes in the middle of the road,” she said.
Many vehicles continued to violate the HC order by entering the bus lanes. The traffic marshals complained that cars did not stop when they signalled to stick to non-bus lanes. “We will be run over if we stand in front of these vehicles. What do you do? Violators drive fast and get away. There were no major traffic jams today (Wednesday). There are jams only when a vehicle has a problem and all other vehicles behind it get stranded,” said Vinod Kumar, a traffic marshal at the Chirag Dilli junction.
Another commuter, Pravin Lohia, a software engineer said that he doesn’t face traffic jams everyday. “It happens once in a while. But something needs to be done about it,” he said.
Meanwhile, a new BRT corridor is set to come up between Karawal Nagar and Shastri Park in East Delhi. The government plans to construct 14 such corridors in the city.