In a major step to undo the wrongs done to the Yamuna river bed, the Delhi Government has decided to scrap the Millennium Bus Depot along the Nizammuddin bridge and shift it to another place.
The decision to move the country’s largest public transport depot follows a meeting at Delhi Secretariat on Wednesday with all the stakeholders.
Stating that there will be no more “tampering” with the Yamuna riverbed, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal told reporters that his government would shift the depot from the river zone. “Some people had objected to the presence of the Millennium Bus Depot on the river zone since it was in a sensitive area. We have decided to tell the Delhi High Court that we will shift the bus depot from there,” he said, adding that the Lieutenant-Governor is in agreement with the decision.
The matter is expected to come up for a hearing on Thursday.
‘Firm action’“This can be seen as firm action by the new government to correct the wrongs committed during the Commonwealth Games. The Millennium Depot was also highlighted by the Shunglu Committee as one of the irregularities,” said a source who attended the meeting.
The depot, which came up on a fly ash pond that used to be a dumping site for waste generated by the nearby thermal power stations, was meant to be a temporary structure to park vehicles during the Games. The then Lieutenant-Governor had given permission for a makeshift bus depot for 10 days to deal with the rush during the Commonwealth Games in 2010. However, a permanent bus depot was created.
The Shunglu Committee had found that even before construction started, some agencies had made plans to have a permanent structure.
According to the Delhi Development Authority’s Zonal Plan, the Yamuna floodplain could be put to use only for recreational purposes like bio-diversity park or garden and construction of concrete structures was banned there.
