Bhopal: Under the scanner since its inception, Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS), was on Tuesday assessed by two experts from Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), New Delhi.
The experts opined that there was no need to dismantle the transportation system, however, they underlined some required changes to make it more effective.
Following frequent road accidents and traffic snarls it created at congested roads, the Madhya Pradesh government had decided to review the utility of this system through experts from Delhi
before taking a call on a possible razing of this structure, which was inaugurated with fanfare in the year 2013.
Speaking to the media, Dr S Velmurugan and Ravi Shekhar (experts from CRRI) said they were content with the design of the transport system and said there was no need to scrap the structure.
The experts suggested that the safety features could be improved for effective public transport facility and supported the installation of boom barriers in the dedicated lane.
However, they declined to compare the BRTS Corridor with the one that was dismantled in New Delhi stating the difference in population and other parameters.
Asked about the frequent accidents due to BRTS Corridor, the visiting experts said related facts are to be studied before the possible reasons are detected.
Saying that the 11km BRTS corridor could be a successful BRTS system, Velmurugan said, “You can compare the same with the one in Ahmedabad and with small alternations.”
Frequency of buses inside the dedicated corridor should be increased, he said.
The length of the pilot corridor is 23.95 kilometres and the width of the corridor is between 30 metres and 60 metres. Altogether, there are 82 bus stops on the corridor starting from the Misrod Section to the Bairagarh Section, making it the longest BRTS corridor in India.
Later in the day, Velmurugan met Urban Administration and Development Jaivardhan Singh over various facets of the corridor including accidents, future traffic management, population growth and
connectivity.
Singh said the evaluation report on BRTS would be received in the next four months.
The corridor has created multiple issues for a busy market area like Bairagarh where business activities are adversely affected due to traffic congestions, primarily generated by the BRTS
corridor as there is little space left on either side of the corridor making traffic jams a routine thing for the area.
In 2013, State Assembly Estimates Committee had inspected the corridor and had offered suggestions in a report submitted to the Madhya Pradesh assembly. The committee led by chairman OP
Saklecha had offered suggestions including 20 foot-over bridges to let pedestrians reach the corridor safely, flyovers to avoid congestions at traffic crossings and side lanes on either side of the corridor for private cars.
However, seeing the project in its current form, it seems hardly anything was done in accordance with the suggestions.
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