Status quo on BRT says Delhi HC

Blaming it on the indisciplined Delhi drivers, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday ordered that the traffic pattern on the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor be restored to its original state. The HC order came four months after it threw open the corridor between Ambedkar Nagar and Moolchand to all vehicles.

Blaming it on the indisciplined Delhi drivers, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday ordered that the traffic pattern on the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor be restored to its original state. The HC order came four months after it threw open the corridor between Ambedkar Nagar and Moolchand to all vehicles.

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“Mixed traffic is becoming impossible to handle and indisciplined drivers of vehicles in Delhi don’t make matters any better,” a bench of justice, Pradeep Nandrajog and justice Manmohan Singh said.

The court had ordered the Delhi transport department and the traffic police not to allow any other vehicles on the exclusive bus lane from September 15. The final verdict for scrapping the BRT all together came following a public interest litigation filed by NGO Nyaybhoomi.

The order is a setback for thousands of commuters who had been having a smooth run on the busy stretch since May this year. The court took note of reports of increasing indiscipline and chaos on the 5.8-km stretch after opening it to mixed traffic on May 12. This was brought about as a part of a court-ordered feasibility study by the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI).

“Under the circumstances, we direct that till the writ petition is decided, the traffic would flow as per the BRT system,” the court said.

The court had opened the exclusive bus corridor on the BRT to other vehicles after the CRRI, in its interim report, said commuters benefited without the BRT. “Experimental run of allowing other vehicles to ply on the bus lane yielded better benefits for all the road users compared to the BRT situation with lesser traffic jams,” the CRRI report said.