"We welcome the High Court order on the BRT corridor. The court has endorsed government's view that public transport must be strengthened to discourage private vehicles in the city," Transport Minister Ramakant Goswami said.
He said the Government has already decided to construct 14 more BRT corridors across the city as part of efforts to enhance public transport system in the city.
Rejecting the plea for scrapping the BRT corridor, the High Court said the project was implemented for long term benefit keeping in mind the growing population and lack of scope to expand the width of city roads.
It dismissed NGO Nyaya Bhoomi's plea which had alleged that the BRT was aimed at harassing commuters and was a "complete wastage" of the public money.
The court observed that even rich people in a developed country use public transport while rejecting the petitioner's argument that the commuters waste their precious time in the long traffic jam.
Despite opposition from various quarters, Delhi government has been strongly defending the BRT project arguing the city must have better public transport infrastructure to address the problem of ever increasing number of private vehicles.
Following the court case and controversy relating to the BRT corridor, the construction of 14 such corridors was put on hold but now government has decided to work on it.
According to statistics, there are nearly 65 lakh vehicles registered in the city while the total number of vehicles in Delhi is more than the total number of vehicles in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. On an average over 1,000 vehicles are added to the city roads everyday.
