In the first major move towards dismantling the Millennium Park depot, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has handed over possession of one of the three alternate sites to DTC for relocation of the Rs60 crore depot, which was built on the fragile
Yamuna bank ahead of the Commonwealth Games in 2010. Nearly 20 acres of land has been demarcated by the DDA in North Delhi’s Rohini, near Rani Khera area. The other two places are land at the Institute of Driving Training & Research (IDTR) at Sarai Kale Khan and a site at Karkari More in East Delhi. “We have handed over possession to the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) to begin with, for the relocation of the depot,” a senior official in DDA’s land Management Department said. “While we have handed over this possession to the DTC, we are still working out the payment options,” he said.
The bus depot spread over nearly 50 acres along the western banks of the Yamuna, was built at a cost of Rs60 crore ahead of the Commonwealth Games in 2010 on a temporary basis. After petitions filed by environmentalists, saying the site was damaging the ecologically-sensitive zone, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) took cognisance of the case and the matter went to the
Delhi High Court. The Government had in January this year told the court that it will relocate the bus depot within nine months. In May, DDA had told the court that it will be giving plots at three separate places, Rohini site being one of them, to the city Government for shifting the depot. “The depot is located in ‘Zone O’ (river plains) and so there were demands for its shifting from the environment activists. A review meeting was held at the Raj Niwas recently to ascertain the status of the pending allotments of land to the DTC for shifting of the depot, where this decision was taken,” DDA’s vice chairman Balvinder Kumar said. The DTC too confirmed the allotment of land by DDA. “The land currently occupied by the IDTR would be made available to the DTC after shifting of the institute to another place. We might be able to hand over soon, possession for this site too,” a DDA official said. The Millennium Park depot, built on a temporary basis for the buses used for ferrying athletes during the Commonwealth Games, was to be dismantled later. Being located in ecologically fragile Yamuna banks, environmentalists have been pushing for its relocation from the current site.