Kejriwal stressed that it was not just a question of safeguarding the environment but also the important issue of ensuring that the city’s natural resources are protected.
NEW DELHI: In a move that has been welcomed by environmental activists,
the Millennium Bus Depot, constructed as a temporary structure on the Yamuna river bank during the 2010 Commonwealth Games, will be shifted out. Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday announced that the government would clear its stand on the controversial depot before the high court through an affidavit. The case will come up for a hearing on Thursday. The CM also announced that no further construction would be allowed on the river bed.
Kejriwal stressed that it was not just a question of safeguarding the environment but also the important issue of ensuring that the city's natural resources are protected. "It is a catchment area for water which cannot be meddled with," he said.
"We are extremely happy with this decision," said Manoj Mishra, convenor of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan. "The earlier government had let us down on this issue. The new chief minister is at least serious about environmental issues and we hope that the river bed will be left in its original condition."
"We are extremely happy with this decision," said Manoj Mishra, convenor of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan. "The earlier government had let us down on this issue. The new chief minister is at least serious about environmental issues and we hope that the river bed will be left in its original condition."
Sources said among the options that are being considered for relocating the depot is Millennium Park across the road. That, of course, gives rise to the question whether this beautifully landscaped park which came up on a landfill site will have to be relocated too
The announcement marks a complete departure from the stance of the Sheila Dikshit government, which had in fact gone against its own earlier recommendation and that of then LG, Tejinder Khanna, to remove the depot within two weeks of it being set up. It had insisted that it needed the land and had no intension of vacating it. In 2013, more than two years after creating the depot, Delhi Development Authority started the process of changing its land use from the existing Zone 'O' , river and water body, to transportation.
This is bad news for Delhi Transport Corporation though, admitted officials. "To build another depot with the same facilities will be difficult ," said an official. It is particularly hard as the DTC has not been finding it easy to get space from DDA to set up more depots. "The fleet has increased in size but depot space remains the same. Some DTC depots are also being used by cluster buses on a temporary basis. Land is scarce in Delhi and taking away one of the best depots from DTC will prove detrimental to the corporation's functioning," added the official.
Millennium Depot is one of the biggest depots that the DTC operates at present. Spread over 60 acres, the depot houses four units within the complex. These four depots in turn park 800 low-floor buses— the single depot to have so many low-floor buses. Said a senior DTC official : "The low-floor buses need special sheds as the space required is more. Special workshops were constructed for this purpose within Millennium Depot."
Besides the buses, the depot also has four CNG filling stations, workshops, ETP, automated washing plants and air-inflation plants. Delhi government had spent over Rs 60 crore to construct the depot in 2010 with more funds being pumped in to build the existing infrastructure.
source - economics time
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