New Delhi, Oct 14 (IANS) Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit Wednesday asked the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to hand over “critical roads” in its charge to concerned civic agencies for renovation and street-scaping in time for the Commonwealth Games next year.
“Chief minister Shiela Dikshit told the DMRC to hand over roads under its charge to the road agencies concerned at the earliest. This is for executing work on new Metro routes. The municipal agencies and public works department have to start development, strengthening, street-scaping and greening exercise keeping in view the ensuing Commonwealth Games,” a state government statement said.

Dikshit met DMRC managing director E. Sreedharan and other senior officials of the the Public Works Department, New Delhi Municipal Council and Municipal Corporation of Delhi Wednesday and she underlined the importance of development and upgradation of “the critical roads which are presently under the charge of the DMRC”.

“The roads which have been closed for traffic are resulting in traffic hazards and continuous traffic jams apart from delay in start of work relating to street-scaping, strengthening and greening of roads,” a senior Delhi government official explained.

Delhi Metro spokesperson Anuj Dayal told IANS: “In the meeting it was decided to hand over roads to the civic agencies. This will be done progressively as and when routes start functioning, starting with the newly opened Vishwavidyalaya-Jahangirpuri route.”

The roads at present with the DMRC include Baba Kharak Singh Marg, Panchkuian Road, Mother Teressa Crescent, Vikas Marg, Tughlak Road, Humayun Road, Aurobindo Marg, road near Lady Sri Ram College, between Lajpat Nagar and Defence Colony, Mehrauli-Badarpur Road and Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road.

In the meeting, Sreedharan assured the chief minister that the DMRC would be able to complete its work very soon, preferably before target dates. But in case the DMRC was not able to hand over any particular road, “it will become DMRC’s responsibility to execute all works relating to strengthening and street-scaping on that particular road”.

Dikshit will monitor the progress of the work on a monthly basis in meetings with the agencies concerned.