Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday announced a slew of projects to be taken up by the Delhi Government in the upcoming months, which include refurbishment of 1,400 km of roads under the jurisdiction of the Public Works Department and introduction of 1,500 e-scooters for self driving to connect last-mile connectivity.

“The PWD will begin the refurbishment project in April and try to complete it within six months. About 4,500 crore rupees will be spent in the first year and then 2,000 crore rupees will be spent every year on the project.

“In the next 10 days, all the proposals will be approved by the cabinet and all the work will start from April 1,”

the Chief Minister said.

The CM had chaired a high level meeting to review the road transformation project where senior officials including Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, and department officials were present.

Announcing the project, Kejriwal  said, “broken pavements, central verges, manholes, slabs, signage, electric poles, railings, lights and FOBs will be repaired along with maintenance of broken roads and potholes under the project.

“Agency will be given a 10-year contract for maintenance & upkeep, which will be responsible for repairing any damage within 24 hours. Every road will be resurfaced twice in 10 years and road markings, zebra crossing and footpaths will be repainted every three to six months. Roads, footpaths, trees and plants will be washed three days a week with mechanical sweeping, deep scrubbing & litter picking every day,” the Chief Minister said.

According to the Chief Minister, mechanical sweeping and washing of roads would be done once in three days and posters and banners put up on streets would be removed on a daily basis.

Sharing more details on the project, Kejriwal said over 100 mechanical sweepers will be hired;  250 smog-guns-cum-sprinklers — one for each ward — will also be hired for sanitation purposes.   Vehicles mounted with cameras would ply across the city and monitor such activities.”

Treated water from sewage treatment plants of Delhi Jal Board will be used to wash the roads. Third party monitoring will be systemised  with vehicles fitted with cameras, if any shortcoming is found, the contractor will be fined heavily.

“There will be a centralised complaint system, where any person can complain if he sees any dirt, mud or potholes on the road,” he said

A massive plantation drive will be carried out on the central verges of the streets as well as empty spaces along side roads.

Kejriwal said, We are transforming a total of 1,400 kms of roads that come under the jurisdiction of the Delhi PWD. The PWD has jurisdiction only upon roads wider than 18m (45ft) across the national capital, and we will leave no stone unturned to transform them.”

He added, all the footpaths and central verges along the roads will be repaired on an as & when necessary basis.

This means that in contrast to the usual practice of replacing footpaths on the entire stretch as adopted by governments who want to spend away all public funds, in this project, we will take up spot-repairs.

If one stone is missing, it will be replaced. If two are damaged, they will be repaired. We will not misuse public funds. Damaged manholes, street furniture, railings, precast slabs, signages, electrical poles, lighting will be repaired.

“In all the city subways, the railings and light fittings will be repaired, as will the foot over bridges. Beyond these civil and electrical repairs, all potholes and cracks on roads will be repaired.”

“The project aims to re-define the maintenance standards of the urban roads across the city and set a new benchmark of world class maintenance for urban roads across the country.

“This road repair and maintenance project will be a major benefit for the citizens of Delhi,” he added,

After meeting with transport department to improve infrastructure, Kejriwal added that the Delhi Government is planning to introduce 1500 e-scooters, a pilot project around which will be launched in Dwarka.

The e-scooters will come with helmets, can be hired by anyone and will be operational for 60 km with one charge, the CM said. It will be available at 250 sites within the area.