DTC, when contacted, confirmed the handing over of the possession of the Rohini site.
“Yes, we have received possession of the 20-acre Rohini site,” DTC's Public Relations Officer R S Minhas said. The senior DDA official in the Land Management said work was underway for rest of the two sites too.
“The land currently occupied by the IDTR would be made available to the DTC after shifting of the institute to another place. We might be able to hand over soon, possession for this site too,” he said.
As per the third site at Karkari More, the official said, DDA was thinking of “hiring a consultant” to work out the land use there for the depot.
A senior DTC official said the transport body recently also had a meet with DDA's UTTIPEC (Unified Traffic Transportation Infrastructure Planning and Engineering Centre) to figure out the working structure for the third site in east Delhi.
The Karkari More site has not been demarcated and during the recent meet review meet at the Raj Niwas, the DDA also decided to “swing into action with regard to demarcation, handing over and work permissions” as per the timelines.
The depot, built on a temporary basis for the buses used for ferrying athletes during the Commonwealth Games in 2010 in the national capital, was to be dismantled later.
Being located in ecologically-fragile Yamuna banks, the environmentalists have been pushing for its relocation from the current site.
The Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party government in January had decided to shift the depot. The then chief minister had said that the site could be turned into a park.
“We should not tamper with the fragile Yamuna ecology and tomorrow we will convey the same to the court. Structures which are developed will remain there but no new structures would be built.
We will rather develop it for people. May be, we can set up a park there,” Kejriwal had then said. The bus depot has parking space for around 1,000 low-floor buses besides various other facilities, including five workshop-cum-scanning centres, a logistic centre and two CNG-filling stations.
