Suggest changes to save BRT: HC

The Delhi High Court on Monday said the government should "take in right spirit" the criticism against the Ambedkar Nagar-Moolchand BRT and suggest how it corridor could function with some changes.

The Delhi High Court on Monday said the government should "take in right spirit" the criticism against the Ambedkar Nagar-Moolchand BRT and suggest how it corridor could function with some changes.

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"The BRT concept and design is not bad… Let us find a mechanism to remove the problem to save the bus rapid transit system," a division bench of justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Manmohan Singh said, while hearing the final arguments.

The court was examining the Central Road Research Institute's (CRRI) survey report criticising the BRT corridor, which said Delhiites were better off without it. The CRRI official, who headed the team that prepared the report, explained to the bench the procedure they had adopted while
conducting the trial run on BRT.

Mixed traffic had been allowed on the stretch, which will continue till the court takes a final stand on the fate of the stretch. The high court is hearing a PIL filed by Col BB Sharan of NGO Nyaybhoomi, demanding scrapping of the BRT.

After perusing the road map and the data submitted by the road research institute, the bench heard final argument for more than four hours and said, "The problem lies with the stretch from Sheikh Sarai to Chirag Delhi, which is only 900m of the 5.8km stretch."

The bench said heavy traffic from Saket side joins the BRT corridor at Sheikh Sarai.

The court asked the government if the buses of route no 534 (Anand Vihar to Mehrauli) and 534A (Anand Vihar to IGI Airport) and some charted buses could be re-routed to decongest the corridor.

Agreeing to the CRRI's suggestion that re-routing of some buses could solve the problem, the court asked the transport department to convene a meeting to discuss the issue on urgent basis and to inform it about its outcome by Tuesday.