By IANS,
New Delhi : The Delhi High Court Monday issued notice to the city government on a PIL seeking scrapping of the 5.7 km long Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor, saying that it was against the Master Plan 2021.
A division bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Indermeet Kaur, also issuing notice to the state transport department and Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS) Ltd, asked them file their response by April 18.
Filing a fresh plea, NGO Nyaya Bhoomi, whose earlier PIL and subsequent review petition on the issue were dismissed by the high court, said that the court had granted the liberty to file the petition again if the BRT corridor from Ambedkar Nagar to Moolchand was violative of the Master Plan 2021.
B.B Sharan, the president of the NGO, in its fresh PIL, sought a direction to scrap of the BRT corridor “by declaring that it is in gross violation of the Master Plan 2021 of Delhi and against the interest of public at large”.
The pleas also sought “removal of bus stop and a bus lane created with concrete structure and other obstacles from Moolchand flyovers towards Defence Colony …”.
Most of the time the bus lane remains free with the situation on other lanes, meant for cars and other vehicles, remaining chaotic and the people getting stuck in jams for hours, said the plea.
“The respondents have created BRT corridor from Ambedkar Nagar to Moolchand flyover of about 5.7 km which is in gross violation of the Master Plan 2021 as on this stretch, a BRT corridor could not exist as the width of the road is not 45 m which is the minimum width required for the existence of BRT corridor,” the petition read.
The master plan envisages that there should be “optimal utilisation of road space and full development of right of way (ROW) by removing all impediments, which has not been done in this case”, said the plea.
Sharan alleged that the corridor was causing inconvenience to the public.
“This non-observance of the master plan has led to the chaotic situation and used traffic jam on this stretch which lead to the waste of petrol/fuels and precious time.”
The court May 12 had allowed other vehicles on the BRT as part of a feasibility study undertaken by the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI).
The CRRI in its report said commuters would benefit if the BRT was scrapped.