The Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) corridor in South-East Delhi, which has been considered an impediment by motorists and a political hot potato, is likely to be scrapped soon.
A senior government official said the Delhi Integrated Multi Modal Transit System Limited (DIMTS), which oversees the stretch, had been asked to carry out a feasibility study and find out if it was able to achieve the objective for which it was constructed. The report is expected soon.
The decision was taken at a meeting on Saturday, a day after a Class V student died while passing through Ambedkar Nagar.
Aman Kumar was crushed by a low-floor Delhi Transport Corporation bus running on route No. 544. His death had led to a fracas, with angry protesters torching over two dozen DTC buses parked at the Khanpur bus depot.
“Saurabh Bharadwaj, the legislator from Greater Kailash constituency who was the Transport Minister during the 49-day Aam Aadmi Party Government in 2013, brought the issue to the fore. He demanded that something be done about the stretch given its track record of fatal accidents,” said an official.
Mr. Bhardwaj had then moved a Cabinet note followed by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s in-principle approval for the scrapping of the BRT corridor.
The nearly six-kilometre stretch is an issue for residents across the Assembly constituencies of Greater Kailash, Devli and Ambedkar Nagar. Its scrapping had also figured among the key promises made by the AAP in its 70-point action plan for the Capital if voted to power.
According to a source, the Delhi Traffic Police too had, in October last year, suggested to Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung that the BRT corridor be scrapped.
In 2004, 34 BRT corridors had been suggested for construction in Delhi. DIMTS had even carried out the feasibility study for six of the corridors and detailed project reports (DPRs) were prepared on two out of these six: Bhajanpura-Mori Gate and Karawal Nagar-Akshardham. However, a subsequent Traffic Demand Forecast Study in 2010 made several observations on the nature of road usage in Delhi.
Based on the finding of that study, DIMTS was asked to prepare DPRs for seven potential BRT corridors out of a total of 14. The corridors are Gandhi Nagar to Chila (10km), ISBT Kashmere Gate to Dilshad Garden (8 km), Gokulpuri to Karkari More (8 km), Mukundpur to Kondli (26 km), Badarpur to Airport(25 km) and Dhaula Kaun to Chhawla (20.3 km).
