Title - Bhopal Metro : Traffic bottlenecks removal need of hour: Expert

BHOPAL: Head of the centre for transportation system in IIT, Roorkee has opined that the metro rail can wait for next 20 years, Bhopal requires streamlining of its traffic bottlenecks.The population density in Bhopal is rather low comparing to other developing cities in the country. Thinking about metro rail in the state capital is good, but the need of the hour is to overcome the bottlenecks in the traffic system. Bhopal can wait for metro rail for another 20 years," Prof Manoranjan Parida said.Parida was in Bhopal to address a national seminar on 'housing and transportation scenario: vision 2031' organised by IES College on Saturday.Talking to TOI, the professor said, "I went round the BRTS corridor of Bhopal that is under construction and found out that there were still some bottlenecks." "BRTS is a good project, but its execution is important."Referring to Ahmadabad project, he said, "One portion of the corridor had to be closed down because of faulty implementation." "Otherwise it is a successful project."Head of the centre for transportation system-- one of its kind course anywhere in India-Parida, said Bhopal also needs to have a separate agency to conduct smooth development of roads and traffic system.He suggested that there should traffic management centre in Bhopal which should be responsible for keeping a tab on Bhopal's traffic system round the year.

Citing the example of Bihar, Prof Parida said the state would complete 1,700 km state highway roads within the set deadline by next year by adopting a systematic planning and strategy.

"They adopted the idea of handing over the responsibility of constructing roads and traffic system to a separate agency."

Expressing his concern over rapid urbanization on the cost of environment, former executive director of housing and urban development corporation (HUDCO) RK Safaya said, "The environment and heritage should not be hampered. Bhopal has huge gift of the nature and greenery. It is disappointing to witness that several roads in the city have been completely turned treeless," Safaya said. He added that urbanisation at the cost of environment can have serious impact in the future.