CRRI to undertake a comparative study on BRT corridor

Following a Delhi High Court order,Delhi government has decided to carry out a fresh study on the BRT corridor’s utility. The study will be carried out by Central Roads Research Institute (CRRI). The institute will be given six weeks to complete the study. The terms of reference for the study include guidelines such as number of vehicles and people using each of the lanes — dedicated bus lane,motorised vehicle lane and non-motorised vehicle lane — and suggestions,if any,for improving the BRT stretches.

“Besides surveying the numbers of vehicles and people using the different lanes,the average speed along the BRT in comparison to the average speed on other roads will also be studied. The safety measures on the BRT compared to other stretches in the city will also be looked into. This data will help us make improvements on the other proposed BRT stretches in the city. The institute will also be asked to suggest measures to improve the BRT’s utility,’’ said a senior government official.

The terms of reference will be forwarded to CRRI by the end of this week. “They will then inform us about the estimates to carry out such a study. The final approvals are likely to be given by next week and they will be given six weeks to complete the study,’’ said a senior transport official.

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The court had last week junked a state government-backed study that the BRT corridor has been useful to commuters and had asked for a new survey on the corridor’s utility.

The bench pointed out the study cited by the government was very old and failed to show the current status or the impact of opening of the corridor to daily commuters. The HC also shot down a proposal by the government to push the names of RITES and IIT as the expert agencies best suited to conduct another survey and had suggested that the survey can be done either by National Highways Authority of India or CRRI.