Elevated bus corridor plan crashes to the ground

Ahmedabad: The Kalupur elevated BRTS station, first proposed in 2010, has faced trouble ever since it was proposed as an intermodal station. The Rs140-crore project was shelved at least twice, before the first BRT bus was allowed to crawl into the railway station in 2012-2013. Thanks to a number of ASI restrictions, and protests from small trading hubs in the Walled City, the elevated corridor never took off.
The first design, involved an elevated corridor from Delhi Darwaja to New Cloth Market in Kagdapith. The 4.5-km stretch passed through nine ASI-protected monuments like Prem Darwaja, Dariapur Darwaja, Shaking Minarets, Sarangpur gate and others. But ASI raised objections stating that AMC was violating the 100-metre distance norm under the new Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (Amendment and Validation) Act, 2010 and altered the plan.
The revised design proposed the corridor from Prem Darwaja to Sarangpur circle (water tank) passing by Kalupur AMTS bus stand-railway station. But soon, that elevated corridor plan was shelved and AMC proposed a new plan to construct an 'on road' route for BRTS in Kalupur and Sarangpur.
"The main issue was in the Prem Darwaja to Sarangpur Darwaja stretch, which had five ASI-protected monuments in the initial design. Permission has neither been granted nor rejected. Since the matter was in status quo, a new route was proposed," said a senior AJL official speaking of the earlier revisions of the plan.