The Statesman 07.06.2013
NDMC decides to stop subway construction
underpasses, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has decided to stop
new construction of subways in its area.
Senior officials in the
NDMC confirmed that after the construction of D and E block underpasses,
which will be completed by month-end, there would be no approval for
the projects related to subways. The council, say sources, recommended
construction of foot over bridges instead of underpasses.
However, Council’s Vice Chairperson Mrs Tajdar Babar said the decision needed to be approved by the council.
“Subways
are dingy and prone to crimes so the council is now deciding upon the
proposal of the construction of foot over bridges instead of subways,”
said Mrs Babar. After completion of projects in pipeline, only a
foot-over bridge with escalators will be constructed, she added.
The
civic agency is also working on details to construct the foot over
bridges by shelving all the upcoming projects recommending the
construction of the underpasses.
“The plans for automated escalators
on the bridges and unique designs will be finalised in the upcoming
council meetings,” said a senior NDMC official.
Earlier, the NDMC
chairperson, Archana Arora, in her budget address, had hinted that
construction of the two subways might be stopped. She claimed that the
public did not want subways. “We spoke to people and they said they did
not want subways. So we dropped the project and focused on improving
existing subways,” Arora said.
The NDMC has completed 15 subways like
INA market (Sri Aurobindo Marg), opposite Gurdwara Bangla Sahib (Ashoka
Road), opposite Birla Mandir (Mandir Marg) opposite Ram Manohar Lohia
Hospital (Baba Kharak Singh Marg) near Regal Building(Sansad Marg) etc.
Subways vary in shapes.
The recent subway completed at Janpath has
‘X’ shaped Entry and exist is available on all the four sides. It was
built at an estimated cost of Rs. 1.5 crore.
40 trees fall in dust storm
While rain showers
provided respite for the people across the city, as many as 40 trees
fell in the NDMC area due to dust storm. NDMC covers sensitive and VVIP
areas and venues for various national and international events and trees
add grandeur to the areas. “Most of the trees fell due to heavy storm
and were adjacent to the roads in south Delhi,” said an NDMC official.
The area under the council is 2-3 per cent of entire city but about half
of this 2-3 per cent is green with the council being a repository of
one lakh trees on public land. The NDMC has 1250 acres of green area.
