Esplanade terminus comes under High Court scanner

Express News Service Posted: Jun 10, 2008 at 0200 hrs
Kolkata, June 9 The bus terminus at Esplanade has once again come under the scanner of the Calcutta High Court. Environmentalist Subhas Dutta filed a petition on Monday alleging that the state government had failed to shift the terminus from Esplanade in accordance with a previous High Court order.

He added that the state had failed to synchronise traffic in the area as well as preserve the greenery surrounding the Victoria Memorial.

A Division Bench of Justices Bhaskar Bhattacharya and R N Banerjee had directed the state government on September 28, last year to shift the bus terminus from Esplanade within six months. The deadline had already expired on March 28.

Dutta alleged that even after eight months, the transport department has not taken any step to shift the terminus. Instead, there were reports that the state government had renovated the existing bus terminus at Esplanade, he added.

Reminding the court that it had directed the state government as well as Kolkata police to synchronise traffic signals around Victoria Memorial in order to reduce air pollution, Dutta said that nothing has been done yet in this regard.

He also reminded the court that the Victoria Memorial authorities had not developed a green belt surrounding the monument as suggested by an expert committee. The matter is likely to come up for hearing on June 19.