The city’s burgeoning vehicle growth - over 1,000 vehicles are added daily - and shrinking road space have set the alarm bells ringing in the Capital. Commuting time has gone up considerably for all categories of road users and serious thought is being given to formulate solutions to deal with the traffic congestion. With Delhi High Court constituting a special committee to tackle the congestion in the city, Times City spoke to transportation experts to find out what the stakeholders can do to improve the situation.

Experts believe that congestion pricing is something that needs to be taken up for certain parts of Delhi on an urgent basis, but developing a sound public transport system is a must before this. "Congestion pricing is a well-established concept across the world in cities like London and Singapore. It is long overdue in Delhi and is something that has to be done at the earliest," said Dr S Gangopadhyay, director, Central Road Research Institute (CRRI).

Since the growth of the city has been largely unplanned, government officials looking into the proposal contended that this concept is tough to replicate here as Delhi doesn’t have a clearly demarcated central business district (CBD). In such a scenario, it is tough to establish where to levy the charge. "All the congested parts of the city, like Connaught Place, Nehru Place, South Extension, Vikas Marg, Karol Bagh, where commercial activity is leading to congestion can be included for the congestion charge scheme," added P K Sarkar of School of Planning and Architecture (SPA).

But before any of this is initiated, people need to be provided an alternative. Though several measures have been initiated by the government to augment the city’s public transport network - introduction of Delhi Metro, new buses, radio taxis - a lot more needs to be done before Delhiites leave their cars and take public transport without facing inconvenience. Also, the government needs to carry out proper origin-destination surveys to establish commuting trends for the city.

"Cities like London carried out extensive research before congestion pricing scheme was started. They knew exactly where and how people were travelling in the city and provided them alternative modes. That is why it worked well. In Delhi, however, there is no such thing. We have allowed creating of new malls and business centres without proper connectivity through public transport or even parking. But before people are taxed, they need to be provided an effective alternative in the form of a sound public transport system," said Rohit Baluja of Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE). Congestion charge, he feels, will only generate revenue for the government if started now.

Delhi’s transport planning, Sarkar added, has not been able to keep pace with development. "Though the Metro has come up, key arteries like Ring Road and Outer Ring Road are still badly congested. And, there is no Metro line coming up along these roads in the near future for any kind of relief," Sarkar said. In cities like Toronto, New York, Tokyo, public transport often provides door to door connectivity.

The immediate solutions that can be initiated include implementation of the long-awaited Intelligent Traffic Systems (ITS) to provide an advanced information dissemination system for road users, something that is prevalent in the major cities around the world.

"We need a strong parking policy to clear roads and footpaths of unauthorized parking and reduce congestion. Bus stops, another cause for congestion, need to be planned properly with bus bays so that these are not a source of jams. A traffic engineering cell should be started too so that lane capacities on all roads can be used to the optimum levels," Baluja added.

The problem of non-functional traffic signals, which are a cause for jams at key intersections, must be sorted out at the earliest to improve flow of traffic, said experts. The government needs to improve last-mile connectivity and feeders to main modes. For this, encroachment should be removed from footpaths and the government should streamline autos and promote cycling on main roads. The non-destined truck traffic must be diverted away from the city.