BRT yet to reach the end of road as Govt defers its plan

The controversial Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor between Ambedkar Nagar and Moolchand seems to have got some more life as the AAP Government, which had promised to dismantle the corridor, on Tuesday decided to wait till a team of officials submit its suggestions after an elaborate study of the stretch. The team will submit its report to Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. 

Sources told The Pioneer that Sisodia convened a high-level meeting on Tuesday to discuss the future of the BRT following the instruction of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to scrap the corridor.Officials gave a presentation before Sisodia on the expenditure incurred on the BRT corridor project and suggested alternatives to remove traffic jam on the stretch. The AAP Government is keen to know who proposed this stretch and why it was implemented in a hurry.

The meeting was attended by Transport Commissioner, Finance Commissioner, PWD Principal Secretary and Engineering-in-Chief of PWD. 

“The team will work like fact-finding committee to decide the fate of the BRT,” said a Delhi Government officer on the condition of anonymity. 

The 5.8-km-long BRT corridor, a legacy of the Sheila Dikshit Government, was opened on April 20, 2008, and was hailed by environmentalists and several transport experts as a solution to Delhi’s traffic woes. However, poor implementation and bad planning resulted in massive traffic jams in lanes meant for private vehicles. Poor management often saw private vehicles enter or cross over to the bus lane, which, by virtue of being in the middle of the corridor, only created a larger mess at intersections.

After considerable public outcry, the Government experimented with various ways to operate the BRT, opening it up completely for private vehicles at one point, but all methods failed to solve the problem.