The secretary, urban development, has asked the public works department to consider the development of 50km or so of elevated roads in the city other than the 50-60 km that is already being constructed or is in planning stage.

While sources say there are no funds for more projects at present, PWD on Tuesday submitted a roadmap of ongoing projects to the UD department, indicating its plans for decongesting Delhi. These include four ongoing projects, four that are awaiting some approval or the other, to commence and 14 for which feasibility studies are being carried out.

"Delhi has a network of 35,000 km of which 12,000 km is with PWD. The problem is, while the city is highly congested, there is no more space for constructing new roads. In fact, land acquisition is a huge problem. Coupled with extremely high cost of land, this has led to it being more practical to construct either flyovers or elevated roads. All new projects that are in the pipeline are largely elevated roads except for where even elevated stretches are not possible, like the connection between Nizamuddin and Lodhi Road and Lutyens' Delhi and the IGI Airport. These will probably be tunnel roads," said an official.

To decongest the city, PWD plans on making most of the roads under it signal-free. Though this is likely to raise the hackles of environmentalists who have been fighting for the rights of pedestrians to be able to cross roads at-grade, without having to use foot overbridges and subways, PWD says that, with the city's growing traffic and no sign yet of any restriction on car ownership in sight, such measures have become most necessary.

PWD has also submitted that a multiplicity of agencies in the city, handling traffic and road issues, makes planning a nightmare. In its meeting with the UD secretary, discussions centred on the need to empower the state government and make the chief minister of lieutenant governor the head of Delhi's unified metropolitan transport authority, a new body that has been proposed for the city. UTTIPEC, which is serving the purpose of this body, could also be brought under state control, sources have suggested.

Sources said that traffic police and PWD are stressing on fast-tracking the north-south and east-west connections, with emphasis on development of an eastern and western peripheral road system. These will include the Kalindi Kunj bypass, the Wazirabad bypass and the Rohini drain-Mukarba Chowk connections.