BRT case sent to new high court bench
4 Sept 2012 7:54 AM IST
The Delhi High Court on Monday transferred to another bench a plea seeking permission for cars to use a lane reserved for buses on the bus rapid transit (BRT) corridor here.
A division bench headed by Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri, who has been elevated as the new Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court, sent the matter to a fresh bench saying that the plea required urgent hearing.
Acting Chief Justice Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw posted the matter for 10 September. ‘This matter requires urgent hearing. As it is not possible to hear the matter and grant urgent hearing, let the matter be posted before another bench on 10 September,’ the court said. The court earlier fixed 1 and 4 September for final arguments.
The 5.8-km stretch of BRT corridor - between Moolchand and Ambedkar Nagar in south Delhi - was introduced in 2008 and designed on the model of Bogota city in Colombia to make bus and bicycle travel safer and faster, and encourage travel that did not involve cars.
The court earlier directed the Delhi government to continue with the arrangement made by the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) during a trial run on the corridor between 12-23 May till the court’s final order. The CRRI model allowed all vehicles to use the reserved bus lane. The institute in its report, prepared after trial runs, suggested that ‘no BRT’ option yielded better benefits for this corridor with the given traffic conditions.
The government termed the CRRI report ‘unconstitutional’ and ‘irrational’ as it ignored the rights of bus commuters. Petitioner NGO Nyay Bhoomi said the BRT system had created more chaos and heavy traffic jams in car lanes, without any conspicuous advantage to the bus users.
A division bench headed by Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri, who has been elevated as the new Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court, sent the matter to a fresh bench saying that the plea required urgent hearing.
Acting Chief Justice Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw posted the matter for 10 September. ‘This matter requires urgent hearing. As it is not possible to hear the matter and grant urgent hearing, let the matter be posted before another bench on 10 September,’ the court said. The court earlier fixed 1 and 4 September for final arguments.
The 5.8-km stretch of BRT corridor - between Moolchand and Ambedkar Nagar in south Delhi - was introduced in 2008 and designed on the model of Bogota city in Colombia to make bus and bicycle travel safer and faster, and encourage travel that did not involve cars.
The court earlier directed the Delhi government to continue with the arrangement made by the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) during a trial run on the corridor between 12-23 May till the court’s final order. The CRRI model allowed all vehicles to use the reserved bus lane. The institute in its report, prepared after trial runs, suggested that ‘no BRT’ option yielded better benefits for this corridor with the given traffic conditions.
The government termed the CRRI report ‘unconstitutional’ and ‘irrational’ as it ignored the rights of bus commuters. Petitioner NGO Nyay Bhoomi said the BRT system had created more chaos and heavy traffic jams in car lanes, without any conspicuous advantage to the bus users.
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