The Hindu : New Delhi News : Hi-tech ISBT to come up at Sarai Kale Khan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 20, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Hi-tech ISBT to come up at Sarai Kale Khan

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, JAN. 19. After a long delay since the sanction of the project, the Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, laid the foundation stone of the Rs. 80-crore ultra-modern ISBT complex at Sarai Kale Khan here. The new complex will integrate with the Metro Rail link coming up near Pragati Maidan and also inter-connect the bus terminus with Nizamuddin railway station to cater to the rising volume of passenger traffic in the coming years.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said the expansion of the new ISBT at Sarai Kale Khan was part of the effort by the Delhi Government to put in place a comprehensive transportation and traffic management system for the Capital. The new terminal would be completed by January 2008 and would cater to traffic coming from Haryana and Rajasthan. To be equipped with five escalators, the new design segregates traffic both horizontally and vertically. Inside the campus, the bus services would be vertically segregated with the inter-State buses ramping up to the first floor and the local buses ramping down the basement. The passenger movement is located on the ground floor. The significant part of the design is that all passenger movements are disabled friendly.

The ancillary functions like retiring rooms and dormitories, upper class waiting rooms, a business centre, a satellite railway booking centre and departmental offices are being accommodated in a separate building that would form the face of the building for passengers entering the terminal building. Non-conventional sources of energy and rainwater harvesting schemes have been integrated into the design of this project.

Ms. Dikshit informed that the Government plans to decentralise the arrival and departure of buses into and outside the Capital by setting up ISBTs at different locations on the borders of Delhi to help achieve less congestion, lesser pollution and better traffic management. She expressed the hope that the construction of an ISBT at Sarai Kale Khan and the adjoining areas would give a tremendous boost to development activity.

The Transport Minister, Haroon Yusuf, informed that the ISBT at Kashmere Gate had become over-crowded and was unable to bear the increase in inter-State traffic. He also informed that as part of the multi-modal transport system concept for the Capital, the Government was planning to implement the monorail system for integration with Metro Rail in the crowded areas of the city.

The project had been hanging fire for quite some time and at one point of time the Government had thought of out-sourcing the project to ensure quality in execution. However, after Commissioner (Transport), Rajiv Talwar, took over, he pushed ahead with the plans for this new modern ISBT and planned it as one of the major destinations in the coming time.

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