Andrews Ganj ward to get 150 speedbreakers
Aiming to control overspeeding on internal roads of residential areas in south Delhi, agencies have sanctioned construction of speedbreakers at 150 locations in Andrews Ganj ward. The move came after area councillor Abhishek Dutt took up the matter following the demand of residents.
Officials of concerned departments surveyed the locality and cleared the locations. The areas which will benefit from this move are Defence Colony, NDSE Part 2, Lajpat Nagar-1 (A,B,C and D block), Andrews Ganj, Sadiq Nagar, Sanwal Nagar, Anand Lok and HUDCO residential colony.
Harender Singh, DCP traffic (south), said, “The site inspections were conducted by traffic inspectors of concerned areas. Based on the feasibility report, the traffic police have given a ‘no objection’ for construction of speedbreakers,” said.
Increasing traffic inside colonies has compounded the situation for pedestrians, for whom walking on the internal lanes has become a risky business. Thus, for the past one year, residents of Defence Colony, South Extension, Andrews Ganj and nearby localities had been demanding the civic agency and area representatives to construct speedbreakers.
“The peripheral roads witness heavy traffic movement and speeding vehicles pose a threat to pedestrians, particularly senior citizens and children. To curb the problem we approached the area councillor three months ago,” said Geeta Bhargava, general secretary of Defence Colony Welfare Association.
According to Vishal Mittal, member of South extension II Welfare Association, commuters from neighbouring areas like Masjid Moth drive in high speed in the internal lanes. “They overspeed especially during the night. This may lead to accidents. To keep a check such drivers we need speedbreakers in all arterial lanes,” he said.
Understanding the seriousness of the situation and the long-standing demand of the residents prompted Dutt to speak to Delhi traffic police and South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC). He filed an RTI in August 2015 with traffic police to understand the procedure of granting permission to install rubber speed breakers, rumble strips and concrete speedbreakers.
“I was informed that rumble strips/speedbreakers can be installed by agencies after receiving recommendation/permission from the traffic department. Thus, I forwarded the list of sites recommended by residents for constructing of the speedbreakers,” said Dutt.
He said the speedbreakers are being constructed as per the norms of Indian Road Congress (an apex body of highway engineers in the country). “Once the project is implemented, our ward will become the first pedestrian-friendly ward in Delhi,” said Dutt.
For the project, Dutt claims to have allocated `9 lakhs to the executing agency, i.e., SDMC. “Speedbreakers have been constructed at two places in South Extension II and rest of the areas will be covered soon,” said senior SDMC official.
In 2013, following directions from the Delhi Lieutenant Governor, civic bodies took cognizance of illegally constructed speedbreakers and decided to put a brake on such construction. There were complaints that a large number of speedbreakers were constructed without proper permission from road-owning agencies. A majority of illegal speedbreakers had come up in residential colonies, in front of houses. The order permitted construction of speedbreakers only outside schools, hospitals and other strategic locations or places frequented by women and children.
