BRT dismantling starts, Manish Sisodia calls it copy-paste by Sheila Dikshit

Striking a hammer, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia today started the process of dismantling the controversial BRT corridor, a Rs 180-crore traffic project built in 2008, and took a swipe at previous Sheila Dikshit government for its "copy-paste" work.

New Delhi, Jan 19: Striking a hammer, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia today started the process of dismantling the controversial BRT corridor, a Rs 180-crore traffic project built in 2008, and took a swipe at previous Sheila Dikshit government for its “copy-paste” work.The AAP government has set a deadline of March 22 this year for dismantling the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) corridor, a 6.20-km long stretch from Ambedkar Nagar to Lajpat Nagar Metro Station, and it will cost the government Rs 3.15 crore.

Sisodia, whose Aam Aadmi Party had made a poll promise to scrap the BRT claiming that it had backfired causing more chaos on the roads, said Congress leaders “might have gone abroad and copied the BRT and paste 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.(Also Read: Manish Sisodia accuses BJP for ink attack on Arvind Kejriwal; calls it conspiracy)

“Today is a big day for five local MLAs and the people of their constituencies. During Assembly elections, Aam Aadmi Party 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,” Sisodia said while addressing a gathering at the event here.”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,” 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. BRT would have been successful if it was constructed on 26 km of roads.”We had also pressure from our five MLAs for dismantling this corridor. After consulting with people, we had to take the decision to scrap this project,” Jain said.

The minister said that government has also appointed a consultant who will in collaboration with MLAs and local residents prepare a plan of redesigning it.The Kejriwal government had in July last year decided to scrap the corridor after it concurred with the general view that it was not serving the purpose it was constructed for and was, instead, leading to massive traffic jams.