DDA to build public amenities and decongest roads in Delhi

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Development Authority has agreed to take up projects that would help improve the quality of life in the national capital, as it aims to build public amenities closer to home and make roads less congested and safer.

At a meeting with Urban Development Secretary Shankar Aggarwal and DDA Vice Chairman Balwinder Kumar, Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu stressed on the need to address the city’s problems of congestion on roads, housing shortages as well as lack of public spaces and other amenities.

It was decided that the authority would take up construction of elevated or new roads, the country’s first cycle-sharing system at Dwarka in southwest Delhi, integrated passenger terminals and new self-contained sub-cities.

The first cycle-sharing system would cover 65 sq km of area with 300 cycle stations that would have modern smart-card based interface, computerised docking facilities and woman-friendly cycles. The tender for this system has been floated and it would be fully functional within a year.

The DDA would develop public plazas, food courts and shopping areas close to most of the 65 stations planned under Phase-III of the Delhi Metro. A new South Delhi Greenway Corridor would be developed by cleaning the 12-km-long Barapullah Nallah using bio-remediation techniques.

A new cycling highway corridor would be developed connecting South Delhi to the central business districts. Naidu has asked the DDA to provide shared public spaces on the lines of Hussain Sagar Lake in Hyderabad and Kankaria Lake in Ahmedabad.

The authority would soon formulate a transit-oriented development policy that would bring about a change in building bylaws to promote modern planning concepts such as mixed use of builtup areas, buildings at roadside and connectivity between neighbourhoods and metro stations.

It would bring in international consultants to prepare a blueprint for the new sub-cities. These sub-cities are expected to be selfcontained with education and entertainment hubs, medical facilities, IT hubs, business districts and transit hubs.