Smart City Project: Connaught Place to become a “no-vehicle” Zone for 3 Months

Delhi, Jan 6, 2017: If Old Delhi is Delhi's soul, Connaught Place is it's heartbeat. It is one of the most busy and visited area in Delhi. In the coming days, as part of the Smart City project Connaught place will see a ban on buses and cars for three months.

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The move is being implemented by the union urban development in partnership with the New Delhi Municipal Council and Delhi Traffic Police. The three-month pilot is aimed at studying traffic flow, parking issues and experiences of pedestrians. The larger goal is to make the arrangement permanent based on the feedback received and observations made during these three months.

When:

This decision was taken during a meet chaired by Union Minister of Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu. The meet was attended by the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and the Delhi Police.

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What will be done:

During these three months, people will be required to park their vehicles outside the pedestrian-only zone. Absolutely no heavy vehicles will be allowed in this zone. However, free 'park and ride' services will be employed from major parking areas at Shivaji Stadium, Baba Kharak Singh Marg and Palika parking. Battery operated vehicles will be employed for people to travel from the parking areas to Connaught Place.

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Idea derivation:

Famous landmarks across the globe like Camden Street in London, Boulevard Saint Laurent in Montreal, Canada, and central district of the Danish capital of Copenhagen, have pedestrian-only zones. In India, The Promenade in Puducherry which is known for its beautiful French quarters has a ban on motorized vehicles after 5 pm. This is where the idea for a vehicle free Connaught Place was derived from.

We hope this pilot experiment won't result is reversal of problems like congestion in other areas and instead will see the light of permanency.

– prepared by Shambhavi Sinha of NewsGram. Twitter: @shambhavispeaks