High court asks Delhi govt to respond to BRT review plea

The Delhi high court on Monday asked the Delhi government to respond to a plea for review of its order dismissing the petition for scrapping the bus rapid transit corridor in south Delhi. HT reports.

The Delhi High Court on Monday asked the Delhi government to respond to a plea for review of its order dismissing the petition for scrapping the bus rapid transit (BRT) corridor in south Delhi.

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The review petition said the court had rejected the plea without dealing with the aspect that the 5.8-km stretch between Ambedkar Nagar and Moolchand was against the Master Plan Delhi (MPD) 2021 norms.

“Government counsel to seek instruction from the Transport Department in respect to the width of the road from Ambedkar Nagar to Moolchand by November 21,” said a bench of justice Pradeep Nandrajog and justice Manmohan Singh.

The bench also told the counsel for petitioner NGO Nyay Bhoomi that “this ground that BRT violates MPD 2021 was not there in their writ petition”.

On October 18, the high court had held that the BRT corridor project was not an ‘irrational decision’ of the government and had dismissed the plea to scrap it after a nine-month hearing.

The review petition has referred to the court’s observation that the row erupted because the government had chosen one of the ‘narrowest’ and most ‘congested’ stretches for its pilot project.

“MPD 2021 is a statutory plan and has the force of law. As per the master plan, the BRT cannot exist on a road less than 45 metres in width,” the plea said.

NGO president BB Sharan said, “The BRT is conceived on the road segment where the total width of road is 45 metres and above. However, this court has inadvertently computed 45 metre equal to 100 feet, whereas 45 meters comes to about 150 feet...”