[sustran] Fwd: [YAM] The Story of the missing Bus Rapid Transport System (BRTS) lanes in Delhi

[Aashish Gupta]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bhargavi Dilipkumar <bhargavi at delhiforum.net>
Date: 17 May 2012 15:57
Subject: [YAM] The Story of the missing Bus Rapid Transport System (BRTS)
lanes in Delhi
To: Vijayan MJ <vijayan at psa-india.net>, Lakshmi Premkumar <
lakshmi at psa-india.net>, Aashima Subberwal <aashima at psa-india.net>, Ashok
Sharma <ashok at delhiforum.net>, Rajendra Ravi <rajendra_ravi at idsindia.net>,
qadeeroy at gmail.com, Arun Mohan <mn.arunmohan at googlemail.com>, Anil
Tharayath <anil at psa-india.net>, youngactivists at lists.riseup.net



*The Story of the missing Bus Rapid Transport System (BRTS)  lanes in Delhi
*

*
*

*Brick walled buildings, Monuments that reminds me of my history textbooks
faded pictures, Elite malls, green & red buses, super fast Metro transport,
a flare of fashion, politics in Jantar Mantar & the ever enlightening India
gate… More than all the ‘Aaha’ factors of Delhi, Being a person who lived
all her life in another City I definitely raised my eyebrows wide for the
“Bus Rapid Transport System” (BRTS) in Delhi. *



BRTS has been a controversial project as it is a cutting edge technology
that would drastically improve the transport systems of India (So that at
least the foreign directors can think of better scenes to portray India
than the stereotypical traffic shots where Bus, Auto & Cycle stands
perpendicular & create chaos in the main road). While on one side the BRTS
makes us raise our collars & keeps the excitement of having a cycle lane
high there are a lot of criticisms including the ones like *“In BRTS
opposed to normal traffic intersections, there are six different movements
of vehicles along the arms of the intersection. The two extra movements are
that of the buses on the BRT lane, which means that all commuters using the
BRT or even passing through have to wait much longer. As the waiting time
increases, the traffic tail lengthens much more than it normally would and
there is a corresponding ripple effect on traffic,"*



While agreeing & understanding the nuances involved in new technologies &
 change adaptation & management,  one needs to resort to intensive research
& debating.



But, A recent incident came as a shock; you would probably know by this
time what I am trying to talk about. For those who are not-  "Around 2 am
on 13th May 2012 someone brought bulldozers to BRT corridor and broke about
350m of bus lane median at sheikh sarai and chiragh delhi". To read more on
it



 (
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/brt-dividers-removed-transport-dept-to-lodge-fir-against-study-team-member/949450/0)




(
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-newdelhi/article3427426.ece
)



While the case on the disturbances caused due to the BRTS was filed, and
the Court has ordered the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) to conduct
further study on the same & the CRRI started the same by trial testing the
same. While Col B B Sharan from the NGO called Nyayaboomi not only alleged
the DIMTS authorities to destroy the BRTS barricade by claiming himself to
be a CRRI member & that he had the court order when actually has the
impudence of going ahead & mentioning on the website of Nyaya Bhoomi, the
NGO that filed the writ in the first place, the Home Page states that they
are carrying out a "crusade" against the BRT and have invited "citizens" to
vote on their site. Since the time this was put up (probably about three
weeks ago, there have been exactly 42 votes, 26 of them by car drivers and
6 by two-wheeler drivers and only 5 by bus commuters (the rest are others).
As expected the cars and two wheelers want the BRT to be abandoned, while
the bus commuters want it to stay! Such is the state of participatory
democracy in this country!


It’s high time we all wake up to the realities of our lives… We have a lot
to discuss debate, understand & fight for as tax payers of the country.



Hope to see you all in the discussion at the Delhi Forum office on*
19thMay 2012 (Saturday) at 2pm. Dunu Roy (Hazards Centre) & Rajendra
Ravi Bhai
(INSTITUTE FOR DEMOCRACY AND SUSTAINABILITY) would help us in bringing
clarity to the debate on BRTS. *



*(**Attachments were not allowed in Yam so i shall attach a few documents
in the DSG Blog & pass the link at the earliest, Thus **P.S. below a few
photographs of the bulldozed BRTS lanes)*

*Please find the address of Delhi Forum office below with the landmark. *

*
*

*Make sure that you pass on the invite to your friends who are interested
to understand the issues around BRTS, Researchers, Students who are working
on Urban Development & renewal issues. *


*Address *
*Delhi Forum*
*Address: F- 10/12, (Basement), Malviya Nagar,*
*New Delhi INDIA - 110017
Phones: 011-26680883 / 26680914*
*Near Malviya Nagar Gol Chakkar*
-- 
Regards,

Bhargavi
Delhi Forum
Address: F- 10/12, (Basement), Malviya Nagar,
New Delhi INDIA - 110017
Phones: 011-26680883 / 26680914 / +91-9582452343 (Mobile)
Emails:bhargavi at delhiforum.net



_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________




********

YAM (Young Activist Meeting) is getting together of young and not so young
people engaged in the thought, action and dreams of changing the world or
making a difference. You can say it is a gathering of activists, to share
their lived experiences in activism and outside activism. At YAM we do not
come together armed with pre-determined agenda and expectations for plan of
action. We have met till date@ Mangaon, Maharashtra in 2006,  Dehradun,
Uttarakhand 2008 and then Lonavala, 2011.

********
The list is to talk, discuss, share, laugh on issues 'personal',
'political' or beyond these two categories with respect and love. It is not
a PUBLIC LIST, if you wish to subscribe send an empty mail mentioning name,
location, profession and other relevant details to
youngactivists-subscribe at lists.riseup.net

********
If you feel traffic is too much then you can choose the digest option and
by any chance you want to leave our community then write to
youngactivists-unsubscribe at lists.riseup.net

********
It is very important that you do not forward conversations from YAM to any
other lists. You may forward individual messages to your friends and others
you can trust, but with the rider that they should exercise similar caution.

Please recommend only those members to be part of YAM who will ensure this
list remains protected from unnecessary publicity.

********
List maintained (not moderated) by madhuresh at napm-india.org Do send your
suggestions and feedback...
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: message-footer.txt
Type: text/plain
Size: 1511 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://list.jca.apc.org/public/sustran-discuss/attachments/20120517/952ad502/message-footer.txt