The perennial traffic congestion at Dhaula Kuan has been a bother for union minister Nitin Gadkari. Whenever he travels to and from the Delhi airport, he highlights this issue. Talking on similar lines on Tuesday, the minister made a pitch for a ropeway transport system between Delhi and Gurugram up to Manesar to ease the journey for those travelling on the route.
Speaking at the Ropeway Expo held at Yashobhoomi Convention Center in Delhi’s Dwarka locality, the minister of road transport and highways said that while so far ropeways have been used for religious tourism in India, it may be time to explore the mode for urban mass rapid transit as well.
‘Rope trick’
Gadkari said that the Dhaula Kuan road was designed for only 50,000 passenger car units (PCUs) but it has to deal with 2 lakh PCUs.
“There is huge traffic in Dhaula Kuan. If we have something that is above the ground then it will ease the traffic on the ground along with checking pollution and helping the people. It will be on a single pillar and take up much less space…The ropeway can take 10,000 people per hour,” he said while addressing the Expo.
The minister went on to say that the cost of building the Metro is Rs 350 crore per kilometre. “And in our country, it is not possible to have a Metro everywhere,” he said.
Later, speaking to News18, Gadkari said that this was just one idea that he shared. He added that the plan is just in his mind and there is nothing on paper yet.
“I wish that there should be one. It is an idea that is there but nothing on paper has been done so far,” he said.
Speaking to News18, a ministry official said that they may consider having ropeway connectivity between Hauz Khas in Delhi and Manesar in Haryana.
“The minister has pitched for it; we will see if we can work on it. All great projects were ideas only at some point of time. This is also the same,” said the official.
Dhaula Kuan conundrum
Those who travel between Delhi airport and the city are aware of the perennial traffic congestion at Dhaula Kuan around the police station there.
Gadkari, an MP from Nagpur in Maharashtra and a union minister, travels frequently in and out of Delhi.
His complaints about the traffic on this stretch date back to 2014-15.
In 2015, he sanctioned a study to find the reasons behind the problem plaguing several parts of the national capital after he was impacted by the jam at Dhaula Kuan.
“I bang my head…as I get stuck quite often” at Dhaula Kuan in south-west Delhi for 40-45 minutes while coming from or going to the airport, Gadkari had said in the Lok Sabha.
In 2017, he laid the foundation stone of a Rs 270-crore project to make the stretch between Dhaula Kuan and Indira Gandhi International Airport signal-free. The project was completed in 2019. But even after all these efforts, the jams have continued to haunt the minister.
“I know and travel in Delhi very little. But the stretch around Dhaula Kuan is the part that gives me the most pain whenever I come from the airport. Even yesterday, I was stuck there,” he once said.
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