CSE supports AAP govt's plan to retain Millennium Bus Depot

The Delhi government believes the only way to reduce car usage and bring down rising air pollution in the city is to scale-up public transport. And retaining of Millennium Bus Depot in the Yamuna riverbed is a price that has to be paid.

The river zone (zone O) spread in 9,700 hectares in Delhi is gravelly threatened by encroachment. The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has in the past sought to shrink the river zone by half to legitimise the illegal colonies it first allowed to mushroom for obvious reasons. But the NGT has stayed the move.

The river zone is 54-km-long and a maximum of 3-km-wide. Its shrinkage also weakens Delhi's war on air pollution, and means reduction in groundwater recharge area - a severe blow to a city facing sharp depletion of groundwater table.

But advocacy group Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has come out in AAP's support on this matter. Senior expert at CSE Anumita Roy Chowdhury said: "The floodplain is critical to Delhi's environment and needs to be protected. But we at the CSE believe the depot should not be removed. The removal will not help. We also believe that the government should take all corrective measures to ensure the depot does not pollute the river."

Anumita said the issue has to be treated differently. "We should not let two environmental objectives clash with each other. We have to find a way out. The point here is that the whole scaling-up of bus transport in Delhi has slowed down due to adequate land for parking. This has to change if we are serious about containing the ever spiraling air pollution in Delhi."

The Delhi government is committed to purchasing 10,000 buses. "But the DDA and other agencies concerned have not been able to commit land for them," she said.

The government claims it will take all precautions to ensure the depot does not harm the river further. "In about 10 acres of land, a government agency is already doing extensive plantation. But make no mistake, we will go by what the court says," said a senior Delhi government official.

The Delhi government had allowed DTC to build the depot during the 2010 Commonwealth Games for temporary parking of 300 buses. But it became a sprawling, permanent depot with a number of facilities.

The government earlier said the depot would be shifted out. It was decided the 60-acre facility abutting Ring Road and NH-24 would be trifurcated and shifted out at `300 crore. But the government now wants to change the land use to legitimise the depot.