Court allows Blueline buses to ply in south Delhi
By IANSFriday, October 29, 2010
NEW DELHI - The Delhi High Court Friday said the government notification to phase out Blueline buses from the capital by Dec 14 will not apply to buses plying in south Delhi.
Justice Indermit Kaur said the court’s previous order in March allowing Blueline operators to ply will continue till further orders, and the Delhi government’s Oct 27 notification will not apply to cluster one.
The government last year announced an ambitious cluster bus service scheme under which corporate entities were proposed to be given certain routes in the city on the pattern of Paris and London.
Cluster one, comprising 32 routes, was to have around 270 Blueline buses.
About 1,600 privately owned Blueline buses, including 264 which run in cluster one and marked to be removed from Delhi’s roads, were banished in the run up to the Commonwealth Games held this month.
The court was hearing a petition by south Delhi Blueline bus operators alleging that the government had failed to procure the requisite number of new low-floor buses and decided unreasonably to axe the 2,400 buses.
The operators said their bus service was not restored even after the Commonwealth Games ended Oct 14 and the government had come out with a new notification for complete phase-out of the buses.
