Dismantling of BRT corridor in Delhi to start tomorrow

NEW DELHI: Dismantling of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor, a 5.8-km long stretch from Moolchand to Ambedkar Nagar, will start tomorrow with Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia initiating the process.

The BRT corridor, which was built in 2008 by the previous Sheila Dikshit dispensation at a cost of around Rs 180 crore, will be completely dismantled by February. The deconstruction will cost around Rs 12 crore.

A senior government official said the dismantling work will be carried out only in nights to ensure smooth movement of traffic.

"The Deputy Chief Minister will start the process of dismantling the BRT corridor, a pet project of former chief minister Sheila Dikshit, at 2 PM near DDA Flats in Madangir area tomorrow.

"PWD Minister Satyendar Jain and five local MLAs, who have been demanding its scrapping for long, will also take part in the process," the official said.

Transport Minister Gopal Rai said the AAP government was not against the concept of BRT, but the existing corridor was built on a "wrong" stretch of road.

Last year, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said his government will introduce the BRT model in an improved form in the national capital.

Dismantling of the corridor will be carried out in the first phase while in the second, the government will engage local residents in preparing a comprehensive plan of redesigning the roads, for which a consultant has been appointed by the Public Works Department.

The Kejriwal government had in July last year decided to scrap the corridor after it concurred with the general view that it was not serving the purpose it was constructed for and was, instead, leading to massive traffic jams.

The BJP had also demanded scrapping of the corridor and it promised to dismantle it in its vision document for the Delhi assembly polls last year.

The corridor was constructed by Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMMTS), a joint-venture company set up by Delhi government and Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation.