Delhiites, you may soon be able to book your parking slot on app, use Wi-Fi on the move

NEW DELHI: New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) will soon develop as its roads as ‘smart roads’ under the Smart City project of the Union government. These roads will have special features like landscaping, vertical gardens, cycle tracks, street furniture, plazas/eateries, pelican crossing and 3D zebra crossings.

NDMC has selected three roads — Mother Teresa Crescent road, Janpath road and Sansad Marg — to develop. Senior officials claimed that the council is preparing the tender and a consultant has been appointed to submit the design.

“The concept of smart roads is to provide better facilities on a particular stretch like open-air cafeteria, landscaping, street furniture, etc. The project will also see replacing street lights with LED lights, with the smart poles having Wi-Fi facility,” said a senior NDMC official.

The plan was first proposed by union minister Venkaiah Naidu in January last year. At the time, it was also proposed to make Connaught Place a vehicle-free zone. However, the Connaught Place plan didn’t take off due to objections from the New Delhi Traders Association and lack of preparations from the NDMC. However, senior officials pointed out that work has been initiated for the smart road project and blueprint is already ready for Mother Teresa Crescent road.

“Once the designs are approved by the council, we will float the tender to award the work. The scope of funding is yet to be decided by the council, which will happen only after the designs are ready,” said a senior NDMC official.

At Mother Teresa Crescent road, the work to develop street furniture has been awarded to SAIL and the work for developing pelican crossing will be done in consultation with the traffic police, officials added.

The smart roads will have sensor-based smart parking system as well. People can book the slot using NDMC 311 mobile app at any desired location in advance and pay through e-wallet or internet banking. The work has already been awarded to a private firm, officials said.

NDMC has procured 60 smart poles, which will have facilities like Wi-Fi, CCTV camera, environment sensors and warm LED. Along with smart poles, these roads will have digital interactive information panels. People can use this panel for registering any complaints with NDMC and also can avail services online.