Govt gets land to park 300 city buses

New Delhi: The Delhi government on Monday said that it has acquired land for parking buses.

Delhi transport minister Kailash Gahlot announced that the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has agreed to hand over 12 acres of land in Rohini to the Delhi government so that parking spaces for the new buses can be ensured. The bus terminal in Rohini Sector-37 has the capacity to park around 300 buses at a time.

“Happy that DDA is handing over possession of 12 acres of land in Rohini today at 11 am. Hope DDA will hand over more land parcels immediately so that government can get more buses and augment public transport,” Mr Gahlot tweeted on Monday.

A letter, from DDA deputy director Aftab Alam to the commissioner of transport department, read: “This is in continuation of your letter dated 22.01.2015 and 17.06.2015. It is proposed to hand over the physical possession of the above mentioned site on November 20, 2017, at 11 am.” This will come as a shot in the arm for a beleaguered Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, which has claimed that lieutenant-governor Anil Baijal has denied several requests to hand over land meant for the parking of buses. The Arvind Kejriwal government announced it would ensure that 2,000 new buses would hit the streets of Delhi by next year.