Traffic curbs can help city: NGO ……..Shibu Thomas I TNN
Mumbai: Keeping your vehicle at home for one day a week could solve a lot of the city’s traffic ills, an NGO told the Bombay high court on Wednesday. A division bench of Justice J N Patel and Justice S K Kathawalla was hearing a PIL by the NGO, Smoke Affected Residents, which among other things seeks the implementation of a traffic restraint scheme (TRS) for the island city.
The state government has already shot down the TRS idea, saying that its priority is to undertake infrastructure projects that will ease the congestion, rather than making restrictive laws.
“Projects are only published in newspapers, not implemented on time,’’ said the judges, adding that the government needs to address ego hassles between bureaucrats. The judges emphasised greater coordination between various departments to implement huge infrastructure projects.
The TRS scheme was first proposed in 2001 by the then transport commissioner V M Lal. According to the scheme, during peak hours vehicles with number plates ending with 1 and 2 would be barred entry into the island city on Mondays, those ending with 3 and 4 on Tuesdays, 5 and 6 on Wednesdays, 7 and 8 on Thursdays and 9 and 0 on Fridays.
Advocate Shiraz Rustomjee said that around 350 new vehicles were added to the city roads every day, and of the 1.6 million vehicles on Mumbai’s roads, 90% were private vehicles. “Measures like TRS and congestion tax on vehicles are necessary to provide incentives to people to go for car pooling and increase the number of air conditioned buses,’’ said the advocate.
The state government has termed the TRS as impractical and said that it had various projects including the MUTP rail projects, to flyovers, Metro Rail and the BRTS to address Mumbai’s traffic problems.
The court has scheduled further hearing in the case on January 21, 2009.
More time to BEST
More time to BEST
The HC on Wednesday extended its deadline till December 31, 2008, for the BEST to retrofit some of its buses with Bharat III/CNG compliant engines. As per the HC orders in a PIL, BEST had to retrofit 1,050 of its buses with CNG engines in three phases. TNN