Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has sent a letter to the Delhi government, asking it to scrap a Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) corridor that runs parallel to one of the proposed metro corridors.
A senior official of the Delhi government said DMRC wanted the BRT corridor, between Karkari Mor and Gokulpuri, scrapped on the grounds that it would compete with their proposed Yamuna Vihar-Mukund Pur (via Mundka) line.
"We have replied to DMRC that a bus corridor cannot compete with a metro corridor. A bus corridor will always complement the rail corridor and provide more options to the commuters," he said. A proper public transport having various modes can be the only solution to control traffic snarls on Delhi’s roads, the official added.
"Building flyovers or wider roads can never help in mitigating traffic congestion, but a good public transport system can. Traffic snarls can only come down if people stop using their personal vehicles and opt for public transport, and this can happen only if there is a strong public transport system. No two modes of public transport can compete with each other," the senior government official explained.
A DMRC spokesperson confirmed that a letter in this regard was sent. "In our letter, we had said that the BRT corridor should be scrapped, but we did not mention any reasons for that." The spokesperson explained that the logic behind sending the letter was that construction of a BRT corridor along the metro line would be a wastage of money.
The Delhi metro at present carries around 1.3 million people daily, which is huge, considering the network it has. "Initially, the metro connected areas with high density of population resulting in huge ridership. But in the later phases, metro will connect low-density areas, and hence other modes of communication will be required to complement it," said the government official.
Under Phase III, DMRC has proposed to construct two new lines and three extensions, covering 67 new stations and 108 km of new track, with an estimated cost of Rs 30,000 crore. The third phase is slated to become operational by 2016. By 2020, Delhi metro will cover more than 400 km.
Delhi government has planned 26 BRT corridors covering 310 km by 2020. BRT corridors are planned and implemented by Delhi Integrated Multi Modal Transit System Ltd, a joint venture company set up with equal equity of the government of Delhi and Infrastructure Development Finance Company.
