Punjab puts ₹600-cr Amritsar BRTS discontinuation on hold

The information was submitted by the state’s advocate general MS Bedi during hearing of a public interest litigation (PIL) on September 29

The Punjab government has put on hold the ₹600 crore Amritsar Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) discontinuation decision, the Punjab and Haryana high court was told.

HC seeks affidavit to clarify as to why project has to be discontinued and what govt propose to do now. (HT)

The information was submitted by the state’s advocate general MS Bedi during hearing of a public interest litigation (PIL) on September 29.

“In view of the statement made by the Punjab advocate general that the discontinuance of scheme has been kept in abeyance, we defer the consideration of stay application to the next date fixed in the matter,” the bench of chief justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and justice Rohit Kapoor observed while dealing with an application that sought stay on the decision.

The court was hearing the PIL filed by the Amritsar Vikas Manch on September 22 that said the project was implemented at a cost of ₹600 crore and is being discontinued without any justifiable cause. This would not only result in wastage of huge public money, but would also cause grievance to the public at large, the PIL said, seeking the court’s intervention.

The first phase of the project was inaugurated by then deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal in 2016. However, reports suggest it failed to attract commuters. A large number of buses remained unused while authorities had to discontinue some routes over ridership issues. In 2019, the then Congress government tried to revive the project and announced three months free travel for commuters and also free travel facility for students. However, this initiative also failed with reported losses of ₹2 crore per month. Earlier this year, the government had decided to dismantle the dedicated 30-foot-wide corridor that would help in creating more space for commuters.

During the hearing, the court sought to know on what basis the decision was taken and has directed the government to file an affidavit clarifying as to what was originally conceived, when the project was introduced with details of public money spent on the project.

“The affidavit shall further clarify as to why the project has to be discontinued, just after expiry of about 10-odd years, and what the respondents propose to do now,” the court said, seeking an affidavit of a responsible officer, not below the rank of secretary of the department concerned by the next date of hearing on October 13.