Millennium Depot: DDA hands over 20-acre Rohini site to DTC

Nearly 20 acres of land has been demarcated by the DDA in north Delhi’s Rohini, near Rani Khera area. 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 on Sunday.

‘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 Rs 60 crore ahead of the Commonwealth Games in 2010 by the then Sheila Dikshit dispensation 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 former Arvind Kejriwal-led 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 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.

‘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. DTC, when contacted, confirmed the handing over of the possession of the Rohini site. ‘Yes, we have received possession of the 20-acre Rohini site,’ DTC’s Public Relations Officer R S Minhas said. The senior DDA official in the Land Management said work was underway for rest of the two sites too. 

‘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,’ he said. 

As per the third site at Karkari More, the official said, DDA was thinking of ‘hiring a consultant’ to work out the land use there for the depot.