HC threatens to stay bus tender

◗ Delhi HC threatened to stay the AAP government’s move if it does not have an action plan to provide parking space

New Delhi, Feb. 7: The Delhi high court on Wednesday threatened to stay the AAP government’s move to procure 1,000 low- floor electric buses instead of standardfloor CNG buses, if it does not have an action plan to provide parking space for the vehicles.

“Will these 1,000 buses fly in air,” a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C. Hari Shankar asked the Delhi government and the Delhi Transport Corporation, after noting that purchase orders were issued without finalising a plan for parking space. The court demanded a timeline from the Delhi government on its move to procure the 1,000 low- floor electric buses instead of the standardfloor CNG buses proposed earlier.

Stressing on the need for low- floor buses, the bench said: “We will not let this exclusivity ( against handicapped persons) to persist in Delhi.”

On an apparent lack of a plan to park the buses proposed to be procured, the court said: “We are unable to understand what would be the fate of these buses.”

It told the Delhi government that ensuring parking space was “not like buying buses or potatoes”.

“Land is something you cannot manufacture. So the concern should not be the cost, but optimal use of the land,” the bench said after the government and the DTC said they have the space to park the buses and there was no need to build multi- level parking facilities as they were not economically viable.

Unconvinced by the government and the DTC’s claims, the bench asked the Delhi chief secretary to “forthwith” convene a meeting of high- level officials and to place before the court an action plan on the nature of parking spaces, their design, the timeline within which the construction would be completed and their location. The bench said it wants the action plan by February 28, the next date of hearing, and failure to do so would result in a stay on the tender as well as the initiation of contempt action against the officials concerned.

“We will then ensure decisions are taken,” it said.

The court was hearing a PIL by Nipun Malhotra, who suffers from a locomotor disability.