The DDA Thursday told the Delhi High Court that it has handed over t hree plots to the DTC for relocating its Millennium bus depot built on the Yamuna river bed.
Justice V.K. Shali was told by advocate Rajiv Bansal, appearing for Delhi Development Authority (DDA), that lands at Narela, Rohini and Sarai Kale Khan has been handed over to the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) or the state transport department.
Bansal told the court that only one site at Karkari More in east Delhi is remaining to be handed over and this will take almost six more months.
The DDA, the capital's land-owing agency, filed a status report saying: "One of the plots, allotted, is in sector 28, Rohini. The plot is measuring about 20 acres and has since been handed over to the transport department, except for a small portion of about 1,700 square metres, which is in the process of being cleared of encroachments and will be handed over shortly."
"Another plot measuring about 10 acres in Narela has been allotted to transport department and physical possession handed over on Aug 25," said the status report.
The DTC, however, objected the stand of the DDA saying that it has not handed over Karkari More land that which is coming in the way of fulfilling its promise to vacate the land by the prescribed time - Oct 31.
Appearing for DTC, Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain and advocate Sumeet Pushkarna told the court that "now if the DDA will take six more months for Karkari More land, how can it (DTC) fulfil the undertaking of vacating the Millennium depot".
To this, the court said: "Undertaking given to this court not once but twice that this land will be vacated by that particular time, and that should be honoured."
Posting the matter for Sep 24, the court asked the DTC to file its response on the status report filed by DDA. It also asked both to come out with a solution of the issue.
The depot was built on about 50 acres of land at a cost of Rs.60 crore. The then Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party government had decided to shift the depot from the river bed, accepting a demand made in a public interest litigation filed in the high court.
