HC notice to govt, DDA over Millennium depot

The Delhi High Court has sought the response of the Delhi government and Delhi Development Authority (DDA) on a plea seeking the initiation of contempt proceedings against them for failure to comply with its order to amend the master plan for making the Millennium bus depot on Yamuna bank a permanent structure.

The Delhi High Court has sought the response of the Delhi government and Delhi Development Authority (DDA) on a plea seeking the initiation of contempt proceedings against them for failure to comply with its order to amend the master plan for making the Millennium bus depot on Yamuna bank a permanent structure.

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Issuing notice to the DDA vice-chairman and chairman and managing director of Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), Justice GS Sistani sought their replies by September 13 on the plea filed by environmentalists Anand Arya and Manoj Mishra.

The court had on September 23 last year allowed the Delhi government to make the bus depot on the banks of River Yamuna a permanent structure. It then gave the government six months’ time to amend the master plan to alter the land use from recreational to transport to ‘bring it in conformity with the present use’.

The environmentalists approached the court once again as the time period has lapsed.

They pointed out the court had clearly told the government that if it did not amend the master plan, there would be no option but to re-locate the depot.

The environmentalists are now demanding the depot’s demolition on the ground that the construction was against the master plan and zonal plan for the river. They also said that such concretisation will badly affect the water recharge capacity of the area and will be harmful for the river.

The depot was temporarily constructed by the DTC for the Commonwealth Games.

“The stark reality is that as per MPD 2021, the land use is river water body. So any construction has to be in conformity with the master plan and so let it be amended to change land use,” the court had said on September 23.

Delhi Government had told the court that the Delhi Lieutenant-Governor had on January 31 this year allowed the DDA to change the land use of the depot and since it had become a policy decision, there was not much scope for the court to intervene.