U-turn likely if problems persist

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has scheduled a review meeting for the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor on Saturday, and has said her government will “give it up” if problems on the new traffic system proved to be impossible to rectify.

Her comments followed Transport Minister Harun Yusuf's remark earlier in the day that they will scrap the project if it is not acceptable to the public.

Chief Secretary Rakesh Mehta visited the corridor between Amabedkar Nagar and Moolchand on Thursday evening.

The CM said a decision would be taken only after the review meeting. “If changes are impossible, we will scrap it,” Dikshit said.

The CM has also put on hold work on other five corridors planned as part of the BRTS in the city, till the glitches along the first one are ironed out. “We are concentrating our energies on the functional stretch, till it is cleared as satisfactory,” a senior DIMTS official said.

Delhi Assembly Speaker and Congress MLA Chaudhary Prem Singh, meanwhile, demanded immediate suspension of the corridor, which has caused traffic chaos in south Delhi. In a letter to Lt Governor Tejendra Khanna, the Speaker has said: “Since its inception a few days ago, the BRT has malfunctioned, caused woes for the common man, besides resulting in traffic mismanagement.”