[sustran] High court restores BRT lane to buses in Delhi- Down to Earth

Sujit Patwardhan patwardhan.sujit at gmail.com
Thu Sep 20 01:07:58 JST 2012


19 September 2012


At last some sanity in the High Court Case in Delhi.
--
Sujit


'If the city decides to buy cars,
buy cars, buy cars and buy more cars…
a day will come when nothing will move.
Should planners allow that to happen?'

**
 High court restores BRT lane to buses
1 Comments
Author(s): Anumita Roychowdhury <http://www.downtoearth.org.in/author/130>
Date: Sep 11, 2012

*Segregated traffic movement to be in place till court pronounces final
verdict on whether BRT corridor should be retained*

[image: Image]Restoring sanity amid chaos, a division bench of the Delhi
Court has issued an interim order in the ongoing public interest litigation
relating to the Delhi BRT road corridor on Tuesday. It has issued an
interim order, stating: “till the time the writ petition is decided, the
traffic flow would revert to its movement/flow as per the BRT corridor
traffic flow system to restore the BRT corridor… by September 15”. Thus,
the bench comprising Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Manmohan Singh,
practically set aside the earlier interim order of the high court that had
allowed other vehicles to ply on the dedicated bus corridor.

'If the city decides to buy cars, buy cars, buy cars and buy more cars… a
day will come when nothing will move. Should planners allow that to happen?'

The new order has taken on record the assurance given by K T S Tulsi, the
government counsel, that necessary signages would be put in place and wide
publicity would be given for the revised traffic flow management and that
the traffic marshals would be brought back and adequate number of traffic
police personnel would be stationed, at least for the first few days, lest
chaos take over the BRT corridor. This will be implemented along with the
changes in the signalling pattern to permit cars and buses to move in the
right direction at the intersections. Traffic police and marshals will
ensure cars which have to take a turn towards the right keep towards the
right side of their road segment.

*BRT a good concept, says court*

The high court was hearing a petition filed by NGO Nyay Bhoomi, demanding
smooth traffic movement and to opening up of the reserved lanes for buses
to other vehicles. In fact, the bench has directed the petitioner to submit
the “sequential logic” and rationale for demanding scrapping/modification
of BRT. The bench observed that public interest petitions are filed for the
larger public good.

*The court has upheld BRT as a good concept and a solution to the growing
car mania and congestion in the city. “If the city decides to buy cars, buy
cars, buy cars and buy more cars… a day will come when nothing will move.
Should planners allow that to happen?” asked the division bench. Good
planners have seen where the city is destined to go and are taking remedial
measures when there is time. Justice Nandrajog likened the situation to a
spoilt child who might in the future accuse his own parents for not curing
him or disciplining him when he was being bad. “Swallow the bitter pill now
if needed,” said the bench. One generation will have to sacrifice for the
good of the others. This will require attitudinal change, they said.*

The bench has made it clear that it is important to find a mechanism to
remove the problem and save BRT. The concept is not bad and there is no
defect in design, but sudden surge of traffic in the middle of the stretch
brings a bad name to the entire project. The focus of the discussion was on
the remedial measures for the 900 metre stretch near Chirag Dilli that has
become a traffic bottleneck. Some of these remedial measures include
modification in the traffic signal cycle, aligning movement of right
turning buses and other motorised vehicles and a parallel road to take
traffic directly from Saket to outer ring road.

The report of the Central Road research Institute (CRRI) on the BRT
corridor was under close scrutiny. The bench used its data to demonstrate
how the current BRT has actually delivered on its own objectives of
carrying more people. More than half of the commuters travelling on this
corridor use buses. Moreover, bus ridership has increased. But more
important as the bench has observed, half of those who have opted out of
autos and taxis on this corridor because of congestion have opted for BRT.
This is a powerful indicator of BRT’s impact as the users of autos and
taxis are rich.

*Petioner's claim trashed*

*The argument put forth by CRRI and Nyay Bhoomi that during the trial run
speed of the cars had increased by 18 per cent was trashed by the court.
The bench observed, this is like saying if the speed has increased from 1
per cent to 2 per cent it is a jump of 100 per cent. In fact, the bench
concluded that having BRT or not, makes marginal difference to the car
users. *

The hearing has outlined the problem clearly with a powerful message at
this crucial time when the Delhi has to decide its future mobility options.
Car numbers will grow with economic growth. But it is important to decide
the sustainability indicators today. Can everyone have car and use it too,
asked the bench. Already congestion is leading to road rage, causing
perversion in society, and insanity is setting in.



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*It's no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.
*

- J. Krishnamurti

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Sujit Patwardhan
patwardhan.sujit at gmail.com
sujit at parisar.org <sujitjp at gmail.com>
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Tel: +91 20 25537955
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