New Delhi: Lt Governor Najeeb Jung on Friday asked the Delhi government to work out the modalities of reducing DTC bus fares, a move aimed at discouraging people from using personal vehicles and promote travel on public transport to bring down pollution level.
Jung, who held a meeting with Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Transport Minister Satyendar Jain and officials, directed the transport department to reduce bus fares across different slabs for the next two months keeping the winter season in mind.
Normally, winter months witness a spurt in pollution.
After spike in pollution, the authorities in Paris had recently made public transport free of cost to encourage people to shun private cars, a senior official said, adding that the Delhi government drew some inspiration from it.
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In the meeting, the transport minister assured the LG that the department would work out the modalities of reducing the bus fares across different slabs.
Apart from this, Jung was assured by the PWD that by February end, all U-turns at Delhi borders, meant to turn away non-destined vehicles, will become operational.
The Lt Governor also said that special attention needs to be paid to reducing pollution at Anand Vihar after the Secretary (Environment) apprised him that pollution readings were high by 20% there.
The measures, suggested to bring down pollution at Anand Vihar, include paving of ISBT (Anand Vihar) to reduce dust, Ghazipur landfill fire to be brought under control and dust control steps to be adopted at the Integrated Freight Complex at Anand Vihar.
The Secretary (Environment) also flagged the issue of idling of vehicles on city roads.
An official said that 200 traffic bottlenecks have been identified in Delhi and data has been shared with the agencies concerned so that traffic can be eased at these bottlenecks, which will reduce idling of vehicles and bring down vehicular pollution.
This can be done through road engineering, relocation of bus stops and through traffic cycle management.
The Secretary (Environment) also flagged the issue of loose soil which can be addressed by greening areas. Jain assured that by February end, the greening of PWD roads would be completed.
“The Secretary (PWD) informed the LG that two vacuum cleaners are operational, out of which one is dedicated to Anand Vihar. They will add six more vacuum cleaning machines by the end of December,” a statement issued by the LG’s office said.
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