“Why Should Delhiites Suffer Traffic Jam For 3 More Years?” SC Summons Police Commissioner

The Supreme Court today summoned Delhi Police Commissioner after it was angry over a statement made by the Delhi government that it will take two long years for removal of 77 traffic bottlenecks in the national capital identified by a court-appointed Special Task Force

“Why should it take two years”, Justice Lokur asked Wasim Qadri, the lawyer for Delhi government who said: “ That much time has been sought since constructions of flyovers, underpasses and foot over-bridges would take time”.

Justice Lokur then retorted:”That means people of Delhi will have to face bottlenecks for another two-three years?”.

“For the sake of people of Delhi, we are summoning the police commissioner to explain the failure to implement the recommendations of the task force”, the bench also comprising of justice Deepak Gupta said.

The AAP-led Delhi government had yesterday informed the Supreme Court about the timeline for removal of traffic bottlenecks at 77 congested corridors,  and said short-term measures like minor improvements in road geometrics to deal with the issue would take six to eight months.

Elaborating the measures for removing such bottlenecks, the city government had said the same have been categorized as 'short-term' and 'long-term' measures and also gave reasons for traffic congestion in the national capital.

In its affidavit filed in the top court, the Delhi government had said that under the long-term measures, six months time would be taken for approval of schemes and sanction of estimates for construction of subways, foot over bridges (FoBs), underpasses and U-turns. Another 12 months would be needed for execution of work after the grant of approval.