NEW DELHI: Taking note of the complaints of passengers, the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) on Thursday strictly directed all its drivers to use the slip roads, instead of flyovers, in the city to provide services to the commuters waiting under the elevated roads and to prevent mishaps.
According to a senior Delhi Transport Corporation official, the corporation took the decision after a detailed study of the roads, routes, locations of bus stands and behaviour of drivers.
It has that found some drivers, violating the rules, are using flyovers instead of slip or service roads on many stretches in the city to avoid traffic jams, and are not covering the bus stands located under the elevated roads which lead to inconvenience to passengers.
“These drivers use flyovers to skip traffic jams, but this is dangerous practice and has increased the chances of accidents. For instance, at Bhikaji Cama Place, a bus stop is located on the slip road, but to avoid the Mohammadpur traffic signal, some drivers take the flyover, and to reach the bus stop from the exit of flyovers, they take a 60- degree cut, creating a serious scope for a collision of vehicles,” the official said.
The official added that at many places, including Raj Nagar, South Extension, Sreeniwas Puri and Bhikaji Cama Place, commuters either have to wait for several minutes at the bus stop or run towards the main road to catch a bus, risking their lives.
The official added that the DTC also found that people in Mansarovar Garden, Yamuna Par near Shahdara Terminal, Ghazipur, Raja Garden, Mother Dairy, Punjabi Bagh, Naraina Ring Road, Outer Ring Road, Mayur Phase-II, Mubarak Chowk bypass Anand Vihar, Akshardham, Sarai Kale Khan and Gurudwara Khichdipur are putting their lives at risk by jumping in the middle of the road to board the bus to reach their destinations.
The corporation has also reduced daily route limit for DTC and clustered buses to 100 km from the existing 130 km in eight hours. Total 6,500 buses are plying on Delhi roads, of which 3,762 DTC buses run on 680 plus routes.