Skip to main content

Traffic congestion plan for Delhi

India's capital Delhi looks set to see the introduction of a congestion charging scheme. The city authorities plan to launch the scheme in a bid to tackle endemic traffic congestion.
April 26, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Delhi has need of some form of traffic control as its vehicle population has doubled to 6.8 million in just five years. PICTURE: Neeraj Singh.
India’s capital Delhi looks set to see the introduction of a congestion charging scheme.

The city authorities plan to launch the scheme in a bid to tackle endemic traffic congestion. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi is aiming to charge INR 150 ($2.87) for cars, motorbikes and even rickshaws entering the centre of the city during peak daytime periods. The city authorities have watched the benefits to traffic control in London and Singapore following the introduction of congestion charging schemes. At this stage it is not clear what technologies will be used but given the experience gained with the schemes in London and Singapore and various other cities (such as Oslo and Stockholm) it seems like that Delhi will benefit from a second generation system that will operate relatively efficiently. Introducing such a scheme in Delhi will see traffic control on a much larger scale than ever tried before however and there will be numerous technicalities to deal with in the process.

Both Beijing and Shanghai are considering congestion charging to help deal with endemic traffic problems at present as well. Delhi certainly has need of some form of traffic control as its vehicle population has doubled to 6.8 million in just five years, despite the introduction of a new metro system and extensive bus transport in the city. Traffic jams and delays have become routine in Delhi and despite the switch to LPG for buses and other diesel powered vehicles some years ago, air pollution is a growing problem.

Related Content

  • New Central Ring Road around Moscow to be built by 2018
    September 30, 2013
    Eugene Gerden evaluates Moscow’s new ring road mega project The Russian government plans to complete implementation of one of the most ambitious projects in the country’s road building industry in recent years, which involves construction of The Central Ring Road around Moscow by 2018. The new road should be built by the next presidential elections, while its length will be 339km. It is expected to be comprised of five sections and will be located 50km away from Moscow Ring Road, a ring road encircling the
  • Smombies! Look out!
    February 12, 2021
    Our city streets are being invaded by smartphone zombies, but help is on the way
  • Solving Sao Paulo's traffic congestion problems
    July 10, 2012
    The Brazilian city of Sao Paulo suffers a heavily congested road network. Huge traffic jams up to 100km long are common and can be even 200km long in bad weather or at weekends and holidays. Of the 1.1 million vehicles that drive into Sao Paulo every day, almost a third are passing through and the new Rodoanel Mario Covas orbital route is intended to tackle the problem. This is a 170km long highway around the city that will connect the 10 highways linking Sao Paulo and allow many vehicles to avoid the conge
  • Delay for tender for link roads to Istanbul’s new Bosporus bridge
    June 25, 2015
    The tender process for the road connections to the third bridge over the Bosporus in Turkey has been delayed once more. This is the third time the tender for the connecting roads for Istanbul's third bridge over the Bosporus has been postponed. The tender for the North Marmara Motorway was originally set for 6th March 2015 but was then pushed back to the 6th May. It was then announced that the tender would be run in two stages, with the Kinali-Odayeri motorway tender on 7th July and the Kurtkoy-Akyazi motor