After halting work on all Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridors till the 5.8 km stretch proves to be a “success”, the Delhi government is staring at another hurdle: a 2005 Supreme Court order that had approved the project.

The project, then called the High Capacity Bus System and first conceived by the Delhi government in 2002, was approved for implementation by the apex court in November 2005. The court had initially set a deadline of August 2007 for the Ambedkar Nagar-Delhi Gate corridor (the first one, of which only the Ambedkar Nagar-Moolchand stretch has been made operational).

The Supreme Court-appointed Environment and Pollution (Prevention and control) Authority [EPCA], headed by Bhure Lal, is also monitoring progress of the corridor. The court had set a deadline of December 2009 for expanding BRT through a network of 100 kilometres across Delhi.

Back in 2005, the Supreme Court had directed EPCA to “examine the issue of increase of HCBS with existing public transport system... and submit a report... expeditiously.” This came on three affidavits filed by then Transport Secretary-cum-Commissioner V S Madan.

The court also instructed the transport department to report to EPCA “in case of any difficulty” in implementing the “time schedule”.

The apex court’s November 30, 2005 order came while hearing a public interest litigation filed by advocate M C Mehta.

Wrong clearance?

In its reports filed in March and May 2006, EPCA claimed to have cleared all concerns voiced by the traffic police about congestion and space crunch for car users (see box). The May 2006 report in fact said there would be a “25 per cent increase in capacity of motor vehicle lanes”. The brief trial run, however, has made a hole in that claim.