Project to ‘transform’ Delhi roads from April

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 28

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, on Saturday, announced a complete world-class transformation of Delhi's roads starting April 1. The project includes refurbishment of 1,400 km of road falling under the jurisdiction of Public Works Department (PWD) Delhi.

The project was announced by the CM after he chaired a high-level meeting to review the road transformation project where Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, senior officials and department officials were present.

About Rs 4,500 crore will be spent in the first year and then Rs 2,000 crore will be spent every year on the project. In the next 10 days, all the proposals will be approved by the Cabinet and the work will start from April 1.

Arvind Kejriwal said, "For many years and months, I have been personally working on a project that now seems to be coming to fruition. We have resolved to make Delhi's roads a class apart, aesthetic and commuter friendly.

"We took up several pilot projects for the cause and finally have zeroed down upon our long-term path towards this. We are transforming a total of 1,400 km of roads that come under the jurisdiction of the Delhi PWD. The PWD has jurisdiction only upon roads wider than 18m (45ft) across the national capital and we will leave no stone unturned to transform them."

Under the project, every road will be re-carpeted twice in 10 years and road markings, zebra crossings and footpaths will be repainted every three to six months. Roads, footpaths, trees and plants will be washed three days a week with mechanical sweeping, deep scrubbing and litter picking every day.

Deep scrubbing machines, 150 tanker-sprinklers along with 100 mechanised road sweepers will be hired for PWD roads. Along with this, as many as 250 anti-smog-gun-cum-sprinklers will be hired to wash the roads of 250 wards of MCD and all the trees and plants along the side. Treated water from sewage treatment plants of Delhi Jal Board will be used to wash the roads.

1,500 e-scooters to be made available

As many as 1,500 e-scooters will be made available for self-driving at public places. The CM said, “We are going to start this as a pilot project at Dwarka. These will be made available at 250 sites within the area. You will have to drive the e-scooter yourself and pay a fare for it.”