HC rejects review petition against BRT

HC rejects review petition against BRT

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 

New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Friday rejected a plea for review of its earlier verdict on the BRT corridor in south Delhi. A bench of judges Pradeep Nandrajog and Manmohan Singh accepted Delhi government’s argument that the court should dismiss the review petition as the petitioner NGO never raised the ground of BRT violating Master Plan 2021 in its main PIL, but had raked up the issue in the review petition. 
    The review petition, filed by NGO Nyay Bhoomi through its President B B Sharan, had argued that “MPD 2021 is a statutory plan and has the force of law”. As per the Master Plan, the BRT cannot exist on a road less than 45 metres in width. 
    While rejecting the NGO’s arguments the bench pointed out that as per MPD 2021, apart from national highways, arterial roads of two kinds – primary and other primary are conceived of. The plan contemplates BRT corridors on primary roads having ‘ROW’ meaning Right of Way, 30 metres and above and BRT corridors on other primary roads having ROW 45 – 60 metres. Thus, HC clarified, issues pertaining to BRT corridors have to be decided not with reference to the width of a road but with reference to the span of a ‘Right of Way’. 
    According to Nyay Bhoomi’s plea, for smooth traffic flow on the corridor between Ambedkar Nagar and Moolchand, the government should not restrain any vehicle from plying on the bus lane. 
    The petitioner had pointed out that most of the time the bus lane remains free while cars and other vehicles get stuck in jams for hours.
Source: TOI (pg 7, 23 Nov 2012)