Centre approves Jaipur's BRT system

Jaipur, Sep 5 (UNI) The state capital will be one of the four cities in the country slated to have a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system soon.

The state government had proposed a BRTS Master Plan of 138 km with development of a BRT corridor along 42 km network as phase I of the project in March this year. The Centre approved the project on September 1.

Urban Development Ministry has approved proposals for BRT systems in Ahmedabad, Pune, Indore also.

BRT system offers a very high carrying capacity with all metro features at a fraction of the cost of metro and is popular around the world.

The system is highly scalable and corridors reserved for BRT can later be used for the metro system if the need arises.

Fifty per cent of this Rs 400 crore project will be funded by the Centre, 20 per cent by Jaipur Development Authority and 30 percent by another agency which is to be decided yet. The project, launched under the Jawahar Lal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, is expected to be complete within the next three years.

Mr O P Agarwal, joint secretary, MUD, said here today that Jaipur is most suited for the BRT system rather than metro as the latter costs much more and may not be viable for a city like Jaipur.

A two-day workshop organised by the MUD yesterday was held here to enable the cities implementing the BRT systems to exchange and interact with each other.

Mr Agarwal said the points discussed regarding Jaipur were re-engineering of roads, the probable bus routes, frequency, operations, pricing and regulations.

He said conclusion was reached that low-floor modern buses where boarding will be easy would be suitable for a city like Jaipur.

Apart from the trunk route, it was proposed that a number of feeder routes would also be included in the project, he added.

The workshop also decided that the dedicated two-way bus lanes should be in the middle instead of being on the sides.

The BRT system has already been implemented in cities like Bogota in Colombia, Curritiba in Brazil, Taipei and several cities in China.

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