Kishore Singh: A citizen's lament

PEOPLE LIKE US

Dear Shiela Dikshitji,

I write to you because I am a little perplexed, and because I know you have our good at heart, for you're one of us.

Of course, as chief minister of Delhi, the city cops block roads off for you, and you have chauffeurs to take you around, so you don't quite see the grind of commuting the way we do, but I'm sure there are enough people to tell you it's a bit of a chore, which is why you're commissionning all those flyovers that promise to take the strain out of our daily shuttles.

Now, I was terribly excited because your government has recently commissioned two flyovers, the length of which connects the points between what is known as Noida Mor and the ITO Bridge.

Not only has this brought down the distance between my home and the office, it's almost signal-free. Therefore, on the face of it, I knew the time I would take to travel from home to work, and back, would reduce.

I celebrated the first day by dallying a bit longer over breakfast, but I now realise that I should have skipped it altogether to make better time.

Depending on traffic, I spend between 20 minutes and a half-hour to get to office.

Zipping across the new flyovers the day they opened to traffic, I was sure of doing it in 15 minutes at most.

Six lanes of cars hurtled along with me on the same premise, but some planner had goofed, so at the point where traffic merges, the road squeezed itself into a chicken's neck, barely sufficient for two small cars.

To make things worse, the red light at the junction permitted a 15-second entry leading to a pile-up worse than I have seen in years.

In the end, while saving myself two kilometres, I found myself spending 50 minutes longer on the commute.

Therefore, in the evening I decided I would return by the route I usually took "" it wouldn't take me more than my usual 20 minutes, seeing that it was well past eight at night.

It took me an hour-and-a-half. And all because the traffic signages had been wrongly placed, there were no policemen around, and the flyover

I had to use to now reach home had a narrow clover leaf that had caused a jam 4 km long.

I cannot help wondering how I got my math wrong: shouldn't new roads and less distance mean less time spent on the road? Or are you building flyovers so we can actually spend more time admiring the city amidst a cacophony of horns, exhaust and frayed nerves?

I'm not a selfish person, and if you've decided we need to spend more time on your new roads and flyovers, so be it. But I'm concerned because I read somewhere that you propose to inaugurate four new flyovers simultaneously (through some electronic wizardy).

Can you now imagine the impact of four new flyovers on the city that instead of helping traffic are supposed to impede it.

I no longer know what to tell my children about when I'm coming home: "Perhaps in five minutes," I said last night, for example, but it took me the better part of an hour.

Today, when I'd given myself an hour to reach office, it took 20 minutes, so I was early and had to work more than usual. And as soon as I've finished writing this, I have to go out for a meeting "" only I don't know how long it'll take me to get there.

Fifteen minutes? Forty-five? Two hours? It's not that I mind the extra time I might spend in my car, but if you could help end the confusion, I "" and millions of Dilliwallahs "" would be most grateful.

Yours etc.