New Delhi:
The Delhi High Court on Thursday directed the transport department of the city to retain till its final order an arrangement that allowed plying of all vehicles in the lane reserved as the bus rapid transit (BRT) corridor.
The Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) had started a trial run in May on the BRT corridor, in which lanes meant exclusively for public transport vehicles were opened for private vehicles.
The division bench of Acting Chief Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai asked the government to allow all vehicles to ply on the BRT corridor till it passes an order on a public interest litigation (PIL) that sought opening of the corridor to all vehicles for smooth traffic movement.
"Let it be re-opened. The transport department is directed to continue with the same arrangement which was made during the trial run," said the bench.
The court's direction came on a fresh application by an NGO, Nyay Bhoomi, filed on Wednesday for modification of the court's earlier order.
The NGO said that the order of trial run on BRT corridor should be made to transport department instead of CRRI, as it is a research institute.
The court had earlier directed the CRRI to undertake a study on making the BRT corridor between Ambedkar Nagar and Moolchand hassle-free for traffic.
The trial run was conducted from May 8 to 16, and after the CRRI submitted an interim report the court left it to the CRRI to decide if the trial run should be continued as it had facilitated smoother flow of traffic.
The CRRI official present in the court on Thursday informed that "during the trial run traffic was smoother than earlier arrangement".
The CRRI will submit its final report on July 12.
Referring to the interim report of the institute, the NGO said that the experts had also given their nod to continuing the trial-run arrangement.
"The concept plan received excellent response from the travelling public as well as appreciation by print and electronic media," said the CRRI report.
The petition sought direction to the Delhi government to allow three and four-wheelers to run on the BRT corridor, reserved for buses, during non-peak hours.
The petitioner said the BRT system had created more chaos and heavy traffic jams in car lanes, without any conspicuous advantage to bus users.
The corridor which was aimed at easing traffic and checking accidents has been facing criticism since its inauguration in 2008 for allegedly causing traffic jams along a 5.8-km stretch between Ambedkar Nagar and Moolchand Hospital in south Delhi.