We have an office in Greater Noida and I went there today for the first time. I was fascinated my the sheer breadth of the Noida-Gr Noida expressway. Flat 6 lane highways are a driver's delight. For some strange reason as you actually enter Greater Noida there's a flyover where the road becomes a four lane affair for a brief while before widening out again. All in all it felt like driving on American highways...vast stretches of straight roads with supermarkets or stores a good distance off the sidewalk.
The day ended with a dinner at The Great Kebab Factory in Noida, before heading back to Delhi. If the expressway was a driver's delight, coming via the BRT till you reach the Chirag Dilli flyover is as much a driver's nightmare.
Agreed, reams have been written about the BRT and how flawed it is. But I have to contribute today to the chorus. Firstly, a picture of this monumental disaster for the uninitiated - just watch the buses ambling around in the BRT corridor and the cramped traffic on the right hand side of the road:
The day ended with a dinner at The Great Kebab Factory in Noida, before heading back to Delhi. If the expressway was a driver's delight, coming via the BRT till you reach the Chirag Dilli flyover is as much a driver's nightmare.
Agreed, reams have been written about the BRT and how flawed it is. But I have to contribute today to the chorus. Firstly, a picture of this monumental disaster for the uninitiated - just watch the buses ambling around in the BRT corridor and the cramped traffic on the right hand side of the road:
I will never cease to wonder how the mental processes of people that plan these kinds of disasters work. I had a mail forward of the Trans Milenio BRT in Bogota, Columbia a few days ago. That BRT is supposed to be the lifeline of Bogota. Agreed, Bogota has a tenth of Delhi's population. But that doesn't mean a BRT can't work in cities that are ten times larger. Conceptually a BRT is a swell idea. It has all the right intentions of converting car traffic to buses to reduce road congestion, pollution and sheer traveling time. But the way the Columbians did it was very different from saddi dilli ("they" below refers to the Columbians):
1) They widened the roads first, before taking away two lanes in the middle for buses. We did nothing of the kind in Delhi.
2) They connected the BRT to dense human traffic areas. In Delhi, the bus stop is at the cross roads where you have the Siri Fort park on one side (no human population) and on the Archana complex side, you have a posh GK1 (very few people living in GK1 would ever dream of boarding a delhi city bus). Effect: no switchover of traffic to buses. Normal traffic plies beside the BRT.
3)They had separate bicycle lanes for people to ride to the BRT station and parking facilities to leave your car or bike there. In Delhi, we don't have separate lanes for bicycles. People ride bicylces at their own peril. There are no parking facilities anywhere near the BRT.
Now it doesnt take a wizard to figure out that with 1 ,2 and 3 above going wrong, we had the perfect recipe for a disaster: Serpentine queues of non bus traffic going green with envy watching barely loaded buses plying lithely alongside in a privileged corridor (the buses are green coloured too, incidentally).
I've vented enough now and am back to my normal high spirits. I guess, every story has a positive side to it: if nothing else, this BRT must make bus drivers smile.
1) They widened the roads first, before taking away two lanes in the middle for buses. We did nothing of the kind in Delhi.
2) They connected the BRT to dense human traffic areas. In Delhi, the bus stop is at the cross roads where you have the Siri Fort park on one side (no human population) and on the Archana complex side, you have a posh GK1 (very few people living in GK1 would ever dream of boarding a delhi city bus). Effect: no switchover of traffic to buses. Normal traffic plies beside the BRT.
3)They had separate bicycle lanes for people to ride to the BRT station and parking facilities to leave your car or bike there. In Delhi, we don't have separate lanes for bicycles. People ride bicylces at their own peril. There are no parking facilities anywhere near the BRT.
Now it doesnt take a wizard to figure out that with 1 ,2 and 3 above going wrong, we had the perfect recipe for a disaster: Serpentine queues of non bus traffic going green with envy watching barely loaded buses plying lithely alongside in a privileged corridor (the buses are green coloured too, incidentally).
I've vented enough now and am back to my normal high spirits. I guess, every story has a positive side to it: if nothing else, this BRT must make bus drivers smile.
12 comments:
And just like that, all the oh, that's so brilliant we Bombayites held in our heads about the roads in Delhi disappears.
You still have that god-awesome metro, though.
The sent item folder in my phone contains a gazillion "I will be late... Damn this BRT" messages!
And now I want to go the Kebab Factory too. Heheh. ALthough the one in Noida is nowhere close to the original one which was at The Radisson. I remember in the early days there used to be a 2 hour waiting there if you'd go without reservations.
you know, there will be a lot more passengers in the bus in a little while. Give it time. :-)
Jhayu - interesting new look picture! Yes, and the metro is getting better connected.
...you mean the Radisson next door in Noida itself? I didn't know it used to be there earlier.
Mukta - I hope you're right. I like to see investments making sense.
No no, I mean the radisson near the airport. There also used to be a superb Italian restaurant there by the name of Itallianis if I am not mistaken, and there coffee shop NYC (i am guessing) used to be good too. But I haven't been there in ages so I really dont know if they all still exist or not.
...I've never been inside that Radisson, but I know the one you mean. Its a huge relief symbol for me...I'm always late for flights and praying for the Radisson since it means the worst of the Mahipalpur stretch is over. Men in deserts sighting an oasis would've felt similar, if not weaker feelings.
hahah... though i think now with the super-cool new fly-over'S' it shouldn't be such a pain!
...I see only the underside of the super cool new flyovers. If you stay anywhere near JNU, you're likely to take the good (?) old Mahipalpur Road where there are no flyovers. Its just an endless stretch of shops that look exactly like each other. so you don't really know where you are until you see the Radisson. I guess that's also because when I'm not driving I don't notice very much of the wayside.
Write.
Hi. I so know the feeling. I used to hate that stretch.
I also doubt very much that the buses will be filling up in Delhi. Somewhere I've always felt that cities with sucessful public transport systems are cities with less harsher weather. If I were to move back to Delhi I don't see myself going the bus/auto route. Not because I'd be a snob but because it's just too hot. For so many months.
But yes, they need to do something about that stretch.
all this talk of mahipalpur stretches, Radisson etc has made me nostalgic. Used to stay in DLF.
:)
its been ages!! WRITE!!!
Diva - yes, I can so easily imagine feeling waves of nostalgia when I think of Delhi 2-3 years down the line. I'm pretty much in my last few months in Delhi before I head out for my next posting.
..., AC: Coming soon. I was off for the weekend to Ranikhet and the weekend's the only time I normally post. But the Ranikhet pictures are so pretty that I plan to post tonight if all goes well.
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