Delhi Roads Will Soon Have Cycle Lanes To Meet International Standards

For decades, changes have been applied to Delhi roads to cater to the national capital region’s ever-rising traffic. Now, the Delhi government has started the project which aims to expand specific roads in Delhi to remove bottlenecks and make the roads travel-friendly for pedestrians and cyclists.

With the Kejriwal government officially announcing the news on October 22, nine arterial roads in the capital which span for 45km will get a redesign to get rid of traffic bottlenecks. Separate lanes for non-motorized vehicles will also be added.

The stretch between Ashram and AIIMS will be piloted first. The next two stretches in line are Narwana Road and Vikas Marg. The rest of the work orders will come later in November. The total cost has been estimated to be about Rs 400 crore.

While at the moment, the roads around Delhi are wide enough, several bottlenecks still exist in certain areas. The efficiency of a stretch’s traffic movement can only be as good as that of the bottleneck. The reason is that when the free-flowing traffic comes to these chokepoints, it results in traffic congestion, making the stretches ineffective. That’s why the Delhi government is determined to get rid of these bottlenecks to increase these roads’ efficiency.

Non-motor vehicles will have a separate lane on these roads, which protects them from the regular traffic, encouraging people to choose cycles as well as electric cycles for the daily commute.

The capital has also been putting efforts into dealing with the region’s serious air pollution. The vehicles traveling on Delhi roads are also responsible for this air pollution, leading to the implementation of the Odd-Even rule starting this November 4.