In its latest report tabled in the Assembly on Tuesday, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India said ITS was introduced keeping in view the tremendous increase in traffic during the Commonwealth Games to establish state-of-the-art traffic management centres.

The CAG said neither did the Delhi Police, as per the Manual of Policies and Procedures of Employment of Consultants, constitute a Consultancy Evaluation Committee, which is required to carry out the consultant selection procedure for projects costing over Rs.10 lakh, nor did it constitute a Consultancy Monitoring Committee (CMC) to monitor the progress of the assignment and assess the quality of deliverables.

Rather, the Delhi Police directly appointed RITES as a consultant after seeking approval of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. This was done in 2009 for pre-investment activity and this led to delays in finalisation and inviting tenders and deficiencies in tender document.

“The Delhi Police appointed the consultant in February 2009, however, it invited tender in March 2010 for Cyber Highway i.e., after 13 months and again in July 2011. However it could not award the work due to non-response in the first tender process and scrapping of tender due to deficiencies,’’ the report observed. So it said, “ITS could not be implemented during 11 Plan even after incurring expenditure of Rs.7.50 crore. Thus Delhi Police by not following the manual, could not ensure due planning and diligence in appointment of the consultant and implementation of ITS resulting in non-implementation of the project and unfruitful expenditure of Rs.7.50 crore.’’ The CAG also found the reply of the Delhi Police in the matter “not acceptable’’ on the ground that the consultant was appointed on nomination basis’’ and the Purchase Committee on whose recommendation the tender was scrapped was not a CMC which would monitor the performance of the consultant.

In the case of the “City Video Surveillance System’’, which was one of the plan schemes of the Delhi Police during the 10 Plan and was undertaken to counter the “ill-designs of terrorists, control of crime, strengthening and upgrading the existing VVIP security apparatus and better traffic management,’’ the CAG noted that there was underutilisation of funds.

Source-http://www.thehindu.com/

Hindustan Times (Delhi) / Subhendu Ray

NEW DELHI: Chaos outside Delhi Metro stations might soon become a thing of the past. Now, traffic police who would be posted outside the city’s busiest Metro stations willhelp you catch that rickshaw or autorickshaw for your onward journey.

To deal with the growing problem of congestion outside Metro stations, created by autorickshaws, rickshaws, cars and buses that throng the station’s entry/exit points to pick up or drop commuters, Delhi traffic police have decided to deploy its personnel outside selectstations that see high footfalls. They will be tasked with regulating traffic to facilitate the movement of commuters.

“We have selected 45 such stations including 12 in south Delhi,” said a senior trafficpolice officer, adding that a deployment plan is being prepared.

The plan is to improve traffic flow near Metro stations and also ensure last mile-connectivity.

Delhi traffic police recently held a meeting with the officers of security cell and operations cell to discuss the proposal, said Anuj Dayal, the chief spokesperson of DMRC. Some of thestations where deployment would be made include Rajiv Chowk, Kashmere Gate, Vishwavidyalaya and Central Secretariat.

Source-http://paper.hindustantimes.com

Hindustan Times (Delhi) Atul Mathur

NEW DELHI:

The Delhi transport department will revise fare for radio taxis from next week. A ride in an AC taxi will cost R23 per km and an economy taxi will charge R13 per km. From June, you have to pay more for travelling in radio taxis. After auto-rickshaws, the transport department has now decided to revise fares of air-conditioned as well as ‘economy’ radio taxis in the Capital.

Sources said a ride in an airconditioned radio taxi will now cost R23 per kilometre while the economy taxis will charge R13 per kilometre. The transport department had increased auto-rickshaw and taxi (black and yellow) fares by 25% earlier this month. While the radio taxi operators are demanding a similar hike, sources said the government has agreed to increase their fare by 15%. The radio taxi fare was last revised in September 2010. The existing radio taxi fare in air-conditioned and economy radio taxis is R20 and R10 per kilometre.

“The radio taxi operators have been demanding fare revision. We could not do it when we revised auto-rickshaw fares but it will be done soon,” Delhi transport minister Ramakant Goswami said. He said the transport department was likely to submit a final proposal early next week and the revised fare would come into effect immediately after his approval.

Radio taxis are a popular mode of transport in Delhi. There are about 5,000 AC radio cabs and 3,800 economy radio taxis plying in the Capital.

Available on demand and fitted with global positioning system, radio cabs are considered a safe transport for women and those who travel late at night. According to an estimate, more than two lakh people travel by radio taxis every day.

The congested industrial suburb is a hub of medium and small-scale industries that houses corporate offices and call centres of several business process outsourcing (BPO) companies and there has been a long-pending demand for a robust public transport system in the area.

The two new stations — Okhla Phase 3 and Okhla Vihar — will come up on the Janakpuri West-Botanical Garden corridor, said a spokesperson of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).

Okhla is divided into three phases. As per a traffic survey conducted by the Delhi Metro, the two upcoming stations will cater to more than 20,000 new commuters, when they open by 2016. The ridership is expected to rise to about 25,000 by 2021.

Presently, Okhla has just one Metro station on the Central Secretariat-Badarpur Metro corridor (violet line). The station is located in Harkesh Nagar area of Okhla’s Phase 2 and registers a footfall of nearly 5,100 passengers every day.

“The Okhla Phase 3 Metro station will be a big boon for the Okhla Industrial Area Phase 3 complex, which houses many industrial units and offices of private companies. There is no Metro connectivity to this area right now. The nearest Metro station is Kalkaji on the violet line,” said Anuj Dayal, chief spokesperson of DMRC. The tenders for the construction of these Metro stations have been awarded and work has begun.

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In a bid to ensure world-class cleanliness, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has procured a set of new equipment and machinery – including electrically operated scrubber drier and back pack vacuum cleaners – at all its stations and their surrounding areas in Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida and Ghaziabad.

“These new equipment would provide mechanised cleaning operations and ensure dust free sweeping and cleaning. The new system will also dispose waste and garbage in bio-degradable disposal bags,” said Anuj Dayal, spokesperson of DMRC.

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In a bid to reduce vehicular chaos, all new Metro stations coming up under phase III will have separate slots for four wheelers, autos and buses in their premises.

While some existing stations are currently on roads or just beside roads such as Laxmi Nagar, Preet Vihar and Nirman Vihar among others, a major number of those in Phase III will come up on the city’s busy Ring Road and Outer Ring Road.

“We have plans to create drop-off pnsoints at all 91 metro stations to be built in phase III. The provision for drop-off points will depend on the availability of land,” said a Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) spokesperson.

The Delhi traffic police had in February approached DMRC to ensure halt-and-go facilities for auto-rickshaws on the station premises so that commuters, especially women, do not have to come out to board vehicles.

“This arrangement will make sure roads along metro stations are not decongested by rickshaws, autos and buses that pick and drop passengers. Besides, this will ensure smooth and safe shift of commuters from one mode of transport to another,” said Ashok Bhattacharya, director, UTTIPEC, which has proposed a multimodal integration at 68 metro stations in phase 3.

Additional commissioner of police (traffic), Anil Shukla said dedicated drop-off points for auto-rickshaws and other transport vehicles inside the station premises will provide better and safer last-mile connectivity to women commuters.

The traffic police had asked DMRC to explore possibilities for similar arrangements at all existing busy metro stations, wherever possible, to ease traffic woes for commuters.

Source_http://www.hindustantimes.com

The idea of seamless integration of public transport has taken a small step closer to reality. Each of the upcoming stations in Phase III will have a bus stop hardly 50m away from the station gates.

“This arrangement of seamless integration of Metro and bus will help commuters to easily shift from one mode of public transport to another,” said a spokesperson of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).

This measure has been taken as per the guidelines set by the Unified Traffic and Transportation Infrastructure (Planning and Engineering) Centre (UTTIPEC), said the spokesperson.

“The seamless integration of these transport modes will help in creating a robust public transport system in the Capital,” said Ashok Bhattacharjee, director, UTTIPEC.

According to sources, in phase 1 and 2, Delhi Metro had primarily catered to the urban commuters and had made elaborate arrangements to provide parking facilities for private vehicles at the stations.

In the current phase, the Metro is expanding to the suburbs and rural belts. So a seamless integration between two modes of public transport has become the need of the hour.

During phase 3, many stations will be built on the Ring Road and Outer Ring Road, where thousands of commuters travel by buses to almost every part of the city.

Some of the existing important Metro stations are integrated with bus stands.

The Metro stations include Kashmere Gate, which is interconnected with an inter-state bus stand (ISBT), and the Anand Vihar station. Stations such as Central Secretariat and Lakshmi Nagar also have bus stops nearby.

Source-http://www.hindustantimes.com