Connaught Place in Delhi to go vehicle-free for 3 months beginning February

Delhi will experiment with decongesting Connaught Place - the tentative plan is to make the middle and inner circular roads vehicle-free from February for the next three months on a pilot basis. The decision was taken at a meeting of the relevant authorities of the Urban Development Ministry, NDMC and Delhi Police.
The meeting was chaired by Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 5 January 2017.

The pedestrianisation of Connaught Place would be taken up on a pilot basis and would be implemented for three months from February for ground level testing of issues that would relate to changes in traffic circulation, experience of pedestrians and shop owners, management of reclaimed parking lots, traffic load on outer circle and other similar aspects.
The total parking capacity at the three locations of Shivaji Stadium, Baba Kharak Singh Marg and Palika are 3,172 and these are under utilized - on an average only 1,088 vehicles are being parked. The unutilised capacity could be fully used by promoting 'park and ride' concept. There would be bicycles for hire and also battery-operated vehicles that would be deployed for commuting of people in the business district.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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