CRRI and GDA sign an MoU to relieve Ghaziabad of its traffic mess

With the traffic mess of the city worsening every day, the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) has roped in Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) to prepare a Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) for traffic management. Accordingly, an MoU has been signed by GDA and CRRI today. The CRRI will now provide GDA with an in-depth plan for relieving the city of traffic congestion.

According to officials of CRRI, the plan that will be prepared within the next nine months will be applicable for the next 20 years.

GDA has provided a fiscal amount over Rs 99 lakh to CRRI for its services. The comprehensive traffic plan will cover the entire city of Ghaziabad, including its arterial roads, flyovers and highways passing through it.

According to CRRI officials, traffic congestion in cities can primarily be attributed to insufficient capacity of existing roads, encroachments, faulty parking management and weak internal public transport system. “In our survey, we have incorporated several parameters, which include the number of intersections, the capacity of roads, parking areas, speed and delay of vehicular movement, and non-motorised transport and pedestrian movement,” said Satish Chandra, director of CRRI.

According to a recent report prepared by the Ghaziabad traffic police, the city has around 2 lakh four-wheelers, around 25,000 three-wheelers and around 6 lakh two-wheelers. The causes of traffic jams listed by the traffic police also include the insufficient width of roads, damaged roads, encroachments and a lack of parking space, among others.

GDA has recently received detailed draft project reports (DPR) from the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) for two proposed Metro extensions in Ghaziabad. One extension will be from Noida Sector 62 to Sahibabad and the other from Vaishali to Mohan Nagar. Both these extensions have several planned stations on the way. According to GDA officials, the mobility plan is being prepared in tandem with the upcoming Metro corridor in Ghaziabad and is in line with the Metro policy.

Although the traffic decongestion plan will be prepared by CRRI, it will be implemented by GDA. A similar plan was also prepared by CRRI for Ghaziabad in 2008. “The previous plan is almost 10 years old now and a lot of new transport infrastructure, like flyovers, Metro corridors, the Delhi-Meerut Expressway, have come up in the city in the recent years. We hence require a fresh plan that will be relevant to the new infrastructural changes,” said Ishtiyak Ahmed, chief architect and town planner of GDA.

“The new survey will take into consideration all the upcoming infrastructure, like the proposed Metro,” added Satish Chandra of CRRI.