Delhi HC rejects plea for scrapping BRT corridor

Zeenews Bureau

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday rejected a plea which sought scrapping the 5.8-km-long Ambedkar Nagar-Moolchand Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor. The plea sought the scrapping of the BRT corridor on the grounds that car owners cannot be punished for not opting for public transport. The court, while passing its order, said that the plea was not maintainable. The rejection of the plea has come as a major relief for the Sheila Dikshit government, which has contended that the public transport system cannot be compromised for the benefit of private vehicle owners. The bench had reserved the order on September 24 after hearing arguments from petitioner NGO-Nyaya Bhoomi, the intervener another NGO and the city government. BB Sharan of NGO Nyaya Bhoomi, in his arguments, had referred to a survey report of Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) on the functioning of the BRT here and sought its scrapping alleging that it was harassing the commuters and was "complete wastage" of the public money. Sharan also referred to the Delhi Master Plan to drive home his point that a dedicated BRT corridor cannot be implemented on narrow roads as it would hardly leave any space for other vehicles. However, another NGO favouring the BRT, submitted that "unless they (car users) are punished, they will not shift to public transport system." The Delhi government had earlier rejected the CRRI report criticising the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor and said that it was "unconstitutional" and "irrational" as it ignored the rights of common commuters. The government had said CRRI has violated the concept of equality guaranteed under the Constitution by considering the problems of car users but not the bus users. "It is a completely irrational approach. Their concern is car users but not the bus users. For them, a poor person is not entitled to travel fast. "The value of time for poor is less important for them. Bus users are non persons to them as they have not taken the opinion of the bus users while conducting the trial run for mixed vehicles on the corridor," the government had said before the court. With PTI Inputs