Shifting of Millennium Bus Depot hits roadblock

The shifting of Asia’s largest bus depot hangs in the balance as a piece of land, identified by Delhi Development Authority (DDA) in Rohini for the depot, is mired in controversy. The allottees of a residential scheme, formulated by DDA in 1981, have opposed the plan to shift the Millennium Bus Depot and demanded that the authority give possession of their plots immediately.

‘We were allotted plots under a DDA residential scheme in 1981. However, DDA has not given us possession so far citing non-availability of land before the Delhi High Court. How can they divert 20 acres of land for Millennium Bus Depot from Rohini Phase IV without giving us plots,’ said Rahul Gupta, a social activist who is fighting the case for allottees in Delhi High Court and Supreme Court.

DDA, in its reply to Delhi High Court submitted a plan on shifting the Millennium Bus Depot, spread on 60 acres of land on the river bed of Yamuna. 

In the plan, the authority had proposed to shift the bus depot in three parts: 20 acres of land in Millennium Park, 10 acres of land by shifting Institute of Driving and Traffic Research (IDTR) at Sarai Kale Khan, and 20 acres of land in Rohini Phase IV. The authority has been granted four weeks by the court to complete the entire process of change of land use and present a final road map for plans to shift the depot.

‘I have filed RTI queries with DDA and Lieutenant Governor’s secretariat in this matter. We will raise this issue before the court in the next hearing,’ added Gupta. DDA is yet to give possession to 24,650 allottees of 1981 residential scheme. The allottess were given plot numbers, after direction on the matter by the Delhi High Court in 2012.

 In this scheme 650 applicants are yet to be allotted plots. These cases of dispute are pending in Delhi High Court and Supreme Court. Earlier, Congress government was reluctant to shift the bus depot. However, former chief minister of Delhi Arvind