Delhi govt asks corporates to help reduce traffic snarls

With the implementation of the second phase of odd-even scheme less than a fortnight away, the Delhi government today asked the corporates to make efforts to reduce traffic congestion by providing transport to their employees. Addressing a seminar organised by FICCI on road safety, Sanjeev Jha, Parliamentary Secretary to Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai, said, “The same people who taunted the government back in January, are now asking them to implement the scheme.”

“I will urge the corporates to deploy buses or other mediums of transport in which a number of people travel to work rather than taking their individual vehicles,” he said.

Rai did not attend the seminar as he was unwell. Jha said reducing the number of vehicles is the key to solving half of the traffic problems.

Following odd-even’s implementation for a fortnight from January 1-15, this year, he said that the scheme received favourable reports from several authorities.

“After implementation for 15 days, we received statistics from hospitals which said that the death rates have reduced.  The traffic police also reported that there were fewer incidents of road rage,” he said.

He spoke about how the first car-free day, which was observed to raise awareness among the people, paved the way for odd-even road rationing experiment.

“After observing the first car-free day, the stretch between Red-Fort and India Gate saw less congestion. Experts gave it a thumbs up,” he said.

“We didn’t have adequate enforcement, the public transport in Delhi is also not that good but we were determined that we have to implement this idea,” he added.