Other States - New Delhi   

Traffic jams causing huge losses

By Sandeep Joshi

NEW DELHI OCT. 25. The crawling traffic in the Capital is causing huge financial loss to the nation. And believe it or not, during the peak morning and evening hours fuel worth over Rs.24 crores annually is burnt on each of Delhi's 20 major intersections. Long traffic hold-ups are also resulting in massive loss of man-hours.

A study conducted during the first half of this year by "Chetna", an NGO working in the field of traffic management, environment and consumer rights awareness, found out that congestion and poor traffic management at major traffic signals and junctions was leading to unnecessary burning of fuel where stoppage time could be anywhere between eight to 15 minutes. And if there is a breakdown of any vehicle or there are bad roads, then situation only gets worse.

The NGO deployed its teams at around 20 major junctions and traffic signals to monitor movement of traffic during peak hours (9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.).

The teams recorded data at various areas prone to traffic jams including Kirby Place, Naraina, Moolchand, Ashram, Chirag Delhi, Nehru Place, Panchsheel Marg, IIT, Mahipalpur, Badarpur, ITO, Old ITO bridge, Madhuban Chowk, Karkari Mor and Shahdara.

According to "Chetna's" Anil Sood, it was found that at all these traffic intersections, there was huge accumulation of traffic on all the four sides with traffic queues stretching to almost a kilometre. "At any given time during peak hours, there are around 2,500 vehicles on all sides which include cars, light motor vehicles, buses, and two-wheelers and autorickshaws. And at these intersections stoppage time for each vehicle is around eight minutes where vehicles are generally idling thus burning fuel."

On calculation, it was found that at every major intersection around Rs.24 crores worth of fuel was burnt for 248 working days in an year, he said, adding that things got worse during festivals or if there is any VIP movement in the area.

"Similarly, delay at these intersections is also resulting in man-hour losses. It was seen that at a traffic jam, two persons occupied a car, at least 10 persons were found in a LMV and 60 passengers in a bus who generally got delayed. On calculation, it was found that around 1,300 crore man-hours were being lost annually."

Highlighting the problem, Mr. Sood, who will be presenting the findings in a CII event soon, said failure in synchronising traffic signal system, blocked lanes for left-moving traffic, bus-stops immediately before and after traffic signals and some unplanned flyovers were some areas that needed to be addressed urgently.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Other States

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Ticket-seekers flock to Shani temple
• Tall buildings choke grand old mosque
• Constituencies once, landmarks today
• Armed intruders stab woman to death
• DTC in a fix over speed governors
• Traffic jams causing huge losses
• A relief for golf club members
• More to JNU poll outcome than meets the eye
• Rich tributes to The Hindu
• Minor fire incidents
• Resign first, Congress tells Councillors
• Ticket-seekers rush to lawyers, CAs

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu