Court allows Bluelines in south Delhi, government firm on phase-out

NEW DELHI - The Delhi government Friday said it was not keen on bringing back the ‘killer’ Blueline buses on roads, after the high court ruled that the notification for complete phase-out of these buses by Dec 14 from the capital’s roads will not apply to the buses plying in south Delhi.

“We will not allow the Blueline buses to come on the city roads. We have every channel like appealing the decision in the division bench of the high court,” a senior government source said, pleading anonymity.

He also said that if the court has allowed the Blueline buses on south Delhi roads, the government will check their permits before allowing them to ply on south Delhi routes.

“We are hopeful that the situation will not arise, but we are sure that permits of many of these private-run services have expired. Anyway, first of the cluster buses to ply on south Delhi roads are to come by middle of November,” the source added.

Transport Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely said: “We have not received the court order so far. We will discuss it and then decide on the matter. But surely we will abide by the decisions of the high court.”

The court’s decision came on a petition by south Delhi Blueline bus operators who alleged that the government failed to procure the requisite number of new low-floor buses in place of Blueline buses for cluster 1 and has taken an unreasonable decision to phase out completely 2,400 buses without any proper arrangements in place.