The real cost of Delhi's BRT

Despite the failure of the Pune administration to successfully implement a “bus corridor”, the Delhi government is implementing a 5.8 km stretch of BRT with segregated corridors for buses, cars, cycles and pedestrians. It appears to have made a complete hash of it. And the costs have been escalating, too.

Cost  of chaos Capital cost: Rs 100 crore Quick-fix solution: Convert existing Chirag Dilli flyover into clover leaf at a capital cost of Rs 200 crore Average time taken to complete 5.8 km during rush-hour in a passenger vehicle Before construction: 20 minutes After construction: 35-45 minutes Average fuel wastage per day: 10,000 litres

About one million vehicles use the BRT stretch every day.

On average, transit times have increased by an hour each for private vehicles using the BRT—that’s over one million man hours wasted daily since the BRT came into operation.

Cars and two-wheelers waste fuel idling away. There are no estimates on the amount of fuel wasted, but a back of envelope calculation indicates that all vehicles, buses, two-wheelers and cars together waste over 10,000 litres of fuel as they remain stuck in traffic on the corridor.

Over 2,000 trees were chopped down to make way for Stage I of the blighted corridor, which has resulted in more than 50 motor accidents, 300 injuries and eight deaths.

—Kushan Mitra