By IANS,
New Delhi : The high capacity bus corridor between Ambedkar Nagar and Moolchand in south Delhi will remain closed for vehicular movement from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. beginning Tuesday, a senior official said.
“There will be no vehicular movement on the 5.6-km stretch from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. The trucks carrying bricks and other materials have caused damage to the corridors,” R.S. Minhans, Delhi Integrated Multimodal Transport System’s (DIMTS) senior manager, told IANS.
DIMTS developed the maiden bus rapid transit system (BRTS) corridor, which was thrown open to the vehicular movement in April that left behind a trail of chaos and pile-ups for over a week.
The stretch has so far seen several accidents. A speeding Blueline bus May 19 knocked down a woman in Pushpa Vihar area while a chartered bus ran over a man the same day near Ambedkar Nagar on the controversial BRT corridor.
Earlier, May 12 a Blueline bus killed a Class 10 student in Madangir area.
Minhans, however, denied that the accidents had prompted the authorities to close the BRT track for vehicles at night.
“I do not think so. The decision aims at saving the BRT from rashly driven trucks and other vehicles,” said Minhans, adding that they were told Tuesday to close the corridor from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m.
The decision to close the BRT at night was taken when Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit is in Beijing reviewing not only how the Chinese metro has been prepared for Olympic Games, but also assessing how the rapid bus corridor has been successful there.
Dikshit along with her personal secretary P.K. Tripathi, Chief Secretary Rakesh Mehta and other officials is on an official visit to China May 24-31. They reached Beijing Sunday from Hong Kong.