Start relocating Millennium depot, DTC told

The Delhi High Court Thursday directed Delhi Transport Corp (DTC) to begin the process of relocating its Millennium Bus Depot built on the Yamuna river bed to sites allotted by the DDA.

Justice Sudershan Kumar Misra also asked the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and DTC to file a status report before July 14.

The court direction came after Rajiv Bansal, counsel for DDA, told the court that three sites had been identified for the purpose.

The counsel said that Lt. Governor had granted working permission to the state-run DTC to use 20 acres of land in Rohini Phase-V and seven acres in Sarai Kale Khan.

"DDA is working on changing land use permissions for Rohini Phase-V for proper allotment and it will hand over the land to DTC in four months," Bansal told the court.

DDA said it will hand over the Sarai Kale Khan site to DTC in four months.

It said the third site allotted for shifting the depot was at the 42-acre Karkari More in east Delhi.

Meanwhile, Justice Misra pulled up the DTC for its lackadaisical attitude in shifting the depot to the sites.

When advocate Sumit Pushkarna, appearing for DTC, said shifting the depot to three sites would not be easy and its a time consuming process, the court said that the corporation's attitude was "obstructive".

"Shifting a large depot to 2-3 areas doesn't happen every day. It's an extraordinary situation. Don't tell us it's very difficult, but it will be a test for your organisation (DTC) on how efficiently the officials can work.

"I wonder an organisation of this big size coming up with (this) excuse. You have all the mechanism. I find this attitude obstructive, and this is not a positive attitude," said Justice Misra.

DTC had earlier told the court that it will vacate the millennium depot site by Oct 31.

The depot was built on about 50 acres of land at a cost of Rs.60 crore.

The Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government decided to shift the depot from the river bed accepting the demand made in a PIL filed in the high court.