Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit will be delighted to get the support from two veterans -- Bhure Lal of the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority and Sunita Narain, director, Centre for Science and Environment -- to the highly controversial Bus Rapid Transit System project in New Delhi.
"To contain Delhi's growing air pollution and congestion, BRT is a step in the right direction," say the environmentalists.
In a press release, the environmentalists said public transport is the only way out of Delhi's double trauma -- deadening traffic and deadly air pollution.
BRT can be an environmentally sustainable and cost-effective method of bringing a better bus system to the city. The city needs more buses and more space to run the buses so that people can travel in speed and comfort.
Buses already transport between 50-60 per cent of Delhi's population. Cars transport less but take up more space. BRT provides options to build transport system of future, which is based on bus and rail rapid transport.
Bhure Lal and Narain claim that Delhi might soon lose its war against growing traffic and increasing pollution, without an effective and massive public transport system.
Text: Sheela Bhatt
Image: Commuters make their way through a traffic jam at a Bus Rapid Transit corridor.
Photograph: Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images
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