In a bid to give a more “imaginative” touch to its endeavours, the Aam Aadmi Party government has given its nod for raising a creative team for the Public Works Department.
The team, including professionals such as architects, urban planners, landscapers, designers, managers and software engineers, would to lend its expertise to various project proposals, both ongoing and those to be taken up in the future by the PWD across Delhi, according to a senior government official.
Sources in the government said the body is expected to play a significant role in evolving efficient proposals related to the AAP dispensation’s ambitions of overhauling the Capital’s road infrastructure in over 1,200 km of road space under the jurisdiction of the PWD.
The team, according to the official, would also be a part of the PWD’s never-before bid to create a web-based application for pothole repair on its roads based on geo-tagging as well as the mechanised vacuum cleaning of roads.
Sarvagya Srivastava, PWD engineer-in-chief who holds the additional charge of PWD secretary, said, “The team will lend more imagination to our proposals by lending professional expertise to projects.”
According to a government source, apart from adding its “creative touch” to the government’s bid to implement internationally inspired designs on significant stretches, which would include cycle tracks, green belts and rainwater harvesting measures, it would also work on increasing the PWD’s technical reach through web-based apps.
Significant redesigning proposals revolving around the conversion of single-lane flyovers to double lanes and the creation of a “new transportation ecosystem” with parity between pedestrians, public transportation and private traffic, which a team led by PWD Minister Satyendra Jain went to Malaysia to study, are also on the anvil.
Currently, 10 prominent Delhi stretches are a part of a pilot project involving a cost of around Rs. 5,000 crore. The results of the pilot project will, according to the official, culminate in similar, engineering-based redesigning projects across the Capital.
As per the procedure, project proposals are sent by the PWD to the Unified Traffic and Transport Infrastructure (Planning and Engineering) Centre for approval. If approved, the proposals are sent to various civic bodies, including the Union Urban Development Ministry, for vetting before they can take shape on the ground.
The team will seek to make these proposals as watertight and efficient as possible for quicker approval and early execution, the official added.
