NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday directed the Public Works Department (PWD) to speed up the process of designing and streetscaping of the city’s roads along the lines of European cities to complete the project without any delay and laxity. The stipulated deadline for the project is early 2023.
Kejriwal held a review meeting with the PWD officials on the status of the ongoing project of redesigning seven stretches and 540-km-long roads as per European standards. “The process of designing the roads should be done in a swift manner and the project should be completed within the stipulated deadline. The PWD should ensure the removal of all obstacles.
The project needs to be completed in two years. There should be no laxity in the completion,” Kejriwal directed the officials. PWD Minister Satyendar Jain, PWD Secretary, engineer-in-chief, and various other officials of the department were also present in the review meeting. Delhi government approved the project in 2019. Under the project, 540 km of 100-feet-wide roads will be redesigned on build-operate-transfer (BOT) model and the constructing agency will also be responsible for the maintenance of the roads for a period of 15 years.
The main objectives of the project are removing bottlenecks, decongesting roads for smooth traffic movement, encouraging the use of non-motorised vehicles, constructing disabled-friendly infrastructure and ensuring efficient use of space alongside the road stretches. “The city has uneven roads with poor geometry. The goal would be to increase efficiency of the existing space of the roads, so they are best utilised,” said officials.
Separate lanes will be provided for non-motorized vehicles, footpaths, and side-lanes. The footpaths will be widely mapped to an average of 10 feet for the convenience of the pedestrians and will be disabled-friendly. Moreover, green spaces will also be provided for beautification and plantation. Rainwater harvesting structures will be built inside the drainage systems to store rainwater as groundwater.