Irrespective of drawing severe criticism from every quarter in the city due to its flawed design, the Delhi Government has refused to budge from its avowed stance on the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Corridor. Its officials are busy devising ways and means to protect the Corridor, despite the traffic gridlock it causes. Gauging that the Delhi High Court’s decision might go against its favour, the State Government has decided to continue the fight further and will appeal before the Supreme Court in the matter. The next hearing on the matter is on July 18 before HC. Despite its ill design, the 5.8 km pilot stretch between Ambedkar Nagar and Moolchand is an ambitious project of the Delhi Government. “The Government is in no mood to retreat from its stand supporting the BRT Corridor and is willing to continue the fight further. The Transport Department has been working to prepare a back-up, in case HC decides to dilute the dedicated lane concept of the BRT Corridor,” said a highly placed source with Transport Department. Official sources added that the Delhi Government could look at ways to improve the BRT system, rather than doing away with it. “It is not in the best of the interests of both the Government and the public to scrap the Corridor. The system could just be improvised further,” added the source. The Pioneer had earlier reported that the mixed traffic use on the Corridor had not been restored even a week after the HC had directed to do so. It was for the second time that the Government was directed on July 5 to revert back to mixed traffic use concept, which was followed by the expert body, Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) during its 11 day trial run. “The dedicated lanes on the Corridor have still not been opened for all traffic as directed by the HC. The failure to do so highlights the Government’s stubborn attitude, even though the lakhs of daily commuters on the stretch continue to get stuck in bottlenecks,” said Vipin Kalia, a resident of Panchsheel Enclave. Earlier, the Delhi Integrated Multi Modal Transit System (DIMTS), the agency that manages and operates the Corridor had critisised the findings of CRRI in its report. Terming the CRRI’s report to be prepared with a narrow vision, DIMTS stated that the expert body did not take into account the mobility requirements of all the users and drew its conclusions only based on analysis of movement of private vehicles rather than other modes of transport (public transport). The CRRI in its interim report submitted before the HC had said that the mixed vehicle usage increased the speed of all the vehicles on the stretch. End of misery likely this week The fate of the controversial 5.8 km BRT corridor which has largely remained unsuccessful will be decided by the Delhi High Court this week as CRRI is expected to submit its final report on Monday. The court, in its last hearing had made it apparent that the corridor was not serving its purpose and the motorists experienced a smooth journey when they were allowed to utilise bus lane during a trial run of conducted by Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) from May 12 to 23. A division bench of Acting Chief Justice AK Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw on July 5 had ordered the Delhi Government to allow all vehicles to use the reserved bus lane on the BRT Corridor till the submission of CRRI’s final report which was supposed to be submitted on July 12. The HC on the basis of CRRI’s interim report had mandated it with the discretion to continue the trial on the stretch till submission of the final report but the same could not be implemented due to persistent refusal of the Government to resort to the mixed traffic flow on BRT corridor. It is after this that the court on July 5 gave clear cut directions to the Government to allow mixed use of traffic on the BRT corridor from Ambedkar Nagar to Moolchand but the authorities have yet not complied with the court order. The petitioner, an NGO NyayaBhoomi had said that the CRRI had written to the transport department of the Delhi Government to implement the mixed vehicular use on the BRT stretch with immediate effect but the transport department ignored CRRI’s request. Seeking continuation of trial run, the petitioner had submitted that productive time of people was being wasted due to long commuting time on the ‘faulty designed’ stretch, which became operational in 2007. The CRRI in its interim report had termed the experimental trial run as ‘excellent and very effective’. The CRRI, in its report, had said that the experimental trial run has proved very effective; almost all vehicles crossed the intersection in one signal cycle, there was no traffic jams and commuters took a sigh of relief.