AAP fulfils another poll promise, dismantles BRT corridor

Slamming the erstwhile Sheila Diskhit government for its “copy paste work,” deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday started the dismantling process of Rs 180-crore bus rapid transit (BRT) corridor built in 2008. The AAP government has set a deadline of March 22 this year for dismantling the 6.20-km long BRT stretch between Ambedkar Nagar and Lajpat Nagar Metro station and it will cost the government Rs 3.15 crore.

It was Aam Aadmi Party’s poll promise to scrap the corridor as the party said that the project had backfired causing more chaos on the roads. Mr Sisodia said that the Congress leaders “might have gone abroad and copied the BRT and pasted it in Delhi without proper planning, which was a dangerous work. Even cheating requires application of mind.”

The dismantling work of the corridor will be carried out only in nights to ensure smooth movement of traffic. “Today is a big day for five local MLAs and the people of their constituencies. During Assembly elections, the AAP had also promised to scrap BRT corridor. People often await construction of new roads in their areas. It will perhaps be the first road of the country people would be happy to see being dismantled,” Mr Sisodia said while addressing a gathering.

“BRT corridor was built without planning. The concept of BRT is not bad thing. In several countries, BRT corridors are there and there is also a dedicated lane for buses. But there is a proper system before introducing such project. More buses are bought and BRT is then built with full-planning,” Mr Sisodia said.

“It is good thing to learn new things from other countries, but there is also need to implement them keeping in mind Delhi instead of America, Germany, Switzerland and they (previous government) adopted such thing in case of BRT here,” he added.

PWD minister Satyendar Jain said that most people had asked why they were scrapping it. “The existing BRT corridor was initially planned on 26 km of roads, but it was limited to only six km. The BRT would have been successful if it was constructed on 26 km of roads. We had pressure from our five MLAs for dismantling this corridor. After consulting with people, we had to take the decision to scrap this project,” Mr Jain said.