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(The technology will be fully integrated with the system already in use on the M1 east of Williamstown Road, as well as that planned for the M80 Ring Road.”

“Due to monsoon, some of the skywalk work is delayed. The remaining work is expected to finish in a month. The skywalk will be made open to people in August,” said MSRDC managing director Bipin Shrimali.

The original cost of the project was Rs39 crore when work commenced way back in 2008. As per the original deadline, the skywalk was supposed to be ready in June 2009. The cost has now escalated to Rs50.48 crore due to the four-year delay.

The oval-shaped skywalk, which is supported by 16 stress cables suspended from a central tower located at Nana Chowk, has three escalators and four staircases for its different arms. The MSRDC is yet to finish construction of these escalators and staircases.

“We are left with some work pertaining to escalators and elevators, which will be completed soon. In addition, finishing touches are being given to the skywalk,” said MSRDC chief engineer Subhash Nage.

Although the MSRDC claims that the skywalk will witness about 50,000 pedestrians daily, transport experts refute their claim. Transport expert Ajit Shenoy said: “The staircases and escalators have been built at the wrong locations — they are not in the direction of pedestrian flow. So commuters will not prefer to take the skywalk.”

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Travelling across the city in Delhi Metro is likely to get more comfortable if you are a smartphone user. You may not even need to carry a Metro smartcard or buy a token because your phone will have everything you need.The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) is exploring the possibility of introducing a new system termed near-field communication (NFC), which has the ability to make smartphones act as Metro smartcards. The NFC device in your phone will act as the electronic identity document and keycard.

“We hope to put the system in place soon and reduce the use of physical smartcards within two years before our network expansion under phase 3 is completed. NFC devices are currently at a trial stage,” said a senior engineer of the signalling department of DMRC.

The projected average daily metro ridership in 2016 is projected at nearly 40 lakh once phase 3 expansion is over. DMRC is eyeing at a 30 per cent reduction in manual smartphone transactions through this system.

Many new Samsung smartphones, Nokia Lumia phones, Sony’s Xperia range, HTC’s high-end phones and LG’s Optimus range support NFC. Many other smartphone makers too are reportedly keen on introducing the system.

“An antenna chip will be inserted in the smartphone, which will function as a smartcard. The commuter will have to bring the phone close to the automatic fare collection (AFC) gate to gain entry,” said Anuj Dayal, chief spokesperson of DMRC. The device will establish radio communication with the AFC gate when touched or in close proximity to the phone.

“The new generation phones will let you recharge the chip. The amount of recharge will be reflected in your monthly phone bills “, he added.

The NFC devices are also being tried as alternative to smartcards in Dubai and Singapore metros, he said.

(Hundreds of pedestrians risk their lives daily while crossing busy roads such as the one near Huda City CentreMetro Station in Gurgaon. (Manoj Kumar/HT)

Frequent jams, traffic bottlenecks, lack of road space, non-functional traffic signals and unmanned crossings are major trouble areas.

Flaws in road design force commuters to take a detour of seven kilometres from Rajiv Chowk to the Kherki Dhaula toll plaza in order to take a u-turn. Gurgaon residents risk their lives while maneuvering through high-speed vehicles as they negotiate a u-turn to go to Ambience Mall.

Getting stuck for 30 minutes at the Signature Tower Chowk during peak hours is a routine affair and the absence of a traffic signal at the Huda City Centre Metro station, which is often unmanned, only makes things worse.According to the mobility plan on Gurgaon prepared by the Department of Town and Country Planning, the average speed of intra-city traffic in the city is 23 kilometres per hour. Motor vehicles use 60% of the total roads in Gurgaon whereas public transport occupies only 10% of road space. Only 23% roads have walkable footpaths.

Nearly 2,300 kms of internal road network notwithstanding, the Millennium City lacks adequate space, thanks to the surging number of vehicles on roads.

Nearly 60,000 new vehicles are registered every year in the city and 10 lakh vehicles ply on city roads everyday that include around five lakh inter-city vehicles plying mainly on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway and Gurgaon-Faridabad Expressway.

At major Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway crossings like Shankar Chowk, Iffco Chowk, Signature Tower and Rajiv Chowk, ill-designed u-turns, faulty traffic lights or their absence, oversized concrete triangular structures that bifurcate traffic through slip roads make driving on Gurgaon roads a horrible experience.

“While cities like Ahmedabad have taken a lead in addressing traffic woes as their top priority, there seems to be a complete policy paralysis in Gurgaon when it comes to planning and implementing models of traffic management,” says Sarika Panda, a city resident and an urban planning expert, who is working with the Haryana Urban Development Authority to promote non-motorised transport (NMT) in Gurgaon. Heavy reliance on private cars as there is hardly any public transport system in the city adds to the chaos, she adds further.

City resident and former joint commissioner of police (traffic), Delhi, Maxwell Pereira points out that pedestrians and cyclists are left out when planners make crossings and roads in India.

Gurgaon joint commissioner of police Maheshwar Dayal, who is presently also looking after the traffic department, says all stakeholders are trying to work in tandem.

“We hold routine meetings with civic bodies and make them aware of design faults at crossings. We have raised the issue of the bottleneck at Sirhaul toll plaza bottleneck on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway at highest levels including in courts,” he says.