NEW DELHI: Before Delhi hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2010, sleek street infrastructure was installed near all sports venues and the roads that led to them.
Over the past decade, the information panels, benches, toilets, kiosks, etc, not only faced the elements, but also vandalism. Now, Delhi government is working to bring their lustre back and add more facilities.
Initially, the area around Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, which was the venue for wrestling, cycling and gymnastics events during CWG, and the stretch up to Moolchand in south Delhi would be taken up for maintenance of existing infrastructure, replacing missing facilities and installing new street furniture.
Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation Limited (DTTDC) has floated a tender for maintenance, operation and installation of street furniture, primarily benches and dustbins, on Public Works Department (PWD) roads leading to and in the vicinity of Commonwealth Games venues on build-operate-transfer basis.
The bid document states that during the Games, PWD had taken up a drive for beautification of roads by way of streetscaping, resurfacing of roads, streetlighting, among other things. PWD had entrusted the responsibility to DTTDC for entering into an agreement for developing temporary or semi-permanent street furniture, including traffic or police booths, vending kiosks, public toilets, tree guards, dustbins, information panels, benches, free standing panels and autorickshaw prepaid booths.
One of the clusters developed during this period was the area around IGI Stadium and a section of Ring Road from Rajghat to Moolchand flyover, Bhairon Marg and IP Marg. The agreement stated that the concessionaire could earn revenue through advertising on the street furniture. In January, however, this cluster was taken over from the existing concessionaire.
The new concessionaire would have to install the missing street furniture and repair damaged items according to the existing design and colour. However, specifications and design of benches and dustbins could be modified after approval. Toilets and vending kiosks would have to be kept open for use by the public during operational hours and their maintenance would be taken up when permitted by the authorities.
While public toilets, vending kiosks and information panels would only be maintained and replaced in case they were missing, 17 new benches and 217 new dustbins would be installed, apart from two new autorickshaw booths and four new police booths. The number of information panels and flagpoles would also go up from the existing 69 to 134.
The street furniture would be prefabricated and ideally with a modular design so that not only is there minimal on-site work involved, but they are easy to assemble and shift. It would also be made vandalism-proof and steel benches would have wooden cladding to save users from heated or cold surfaces.
