How Millennium Bus Depot, meant to be temporary, became permanent (Times of India – 26 March 2011)

Neha Lalchandani,

NEW DELHI: Even after the Millennium bus depot has been in use for parking DTC buses for more than five months, there is no clarity on whether the structure was meant to be temporary or permanent. DDA has also not approved any change in land use of the site.
The bus depot, created for parking buses of athletes, came up after protests by environmentalists brought an assurance from the L-G that it would be a temporary structure and pulled down after the Games. However, the Shunglu committee has found that even before construction started, some agencies had already made plans to have a permanent structure.

"All clearances were provided by the LG for construction of a temporary structure which was ostensibly to be dismantled after the conclusion of the Games. But this project was implemented by the transport department, Delhi government and DTC right from the beginning as a permanent structure. It appears as if the hosting of CWG provided a pretext for landgrab by various government agencies after short-circuiting the established rules and procedures," says the report.
The committee is also surprised to note that the L-G gave a commitment at a meeting held on December 18, 2009, that "in the event of DTC not being allowed to use the parking facilities at the site after CWG 2010, the entire amount spent on developing the site will be reimbursed by DDA." To make matters even more complicated, the chief secretary said that having spent Rs 60.9 crore on the project, DTC would not be made to vacate the premises.
PWD prepared five estimates for construction. Four were on the premise that the parking would be of a temporary nature while one was with specifications for a permanent one. Eventually Rama Construction Ltd was appointed for development of a semi-permanent structure. In January 2009, DDA gave DTC three site options for its parking. In June that year, the chief secretary cleared 29 acres from IP power station and Rajghat power station for the project and a couple of months later allotted another 14.3 acres for development of a baggage screening facility.
In August, Rs 10.49 crore was sanctioned without mentioning whether the structure would be permanent or temporary. In October, Rs 7.95 crore more was sanctioned on the grounds that the developed site be utilized by DTC later as a depot for parking buses.
DTC had started making suggestions that the facility be of a permanent nature since they were in need of space for parking of 2,500 additional buses. In October, an additional 34 acres were transferred on a temporary basis.
In December, DTC wrote to PWD deputy secretary saying that land use of the site in question is public utility services and the proposed act of parking buses for athletes is also a public utility. Hence, no change in land use was needed. PWD all this while had been working on the assumption that the facility would be of a permanent nature.

In Feb 2010, it officially stated its position by revising the estimate of bitumen required. The report says that PWD initially considered it as a temporary bus parking but later "when it was seen that DTC will use it even after Games as a depot-cum-workshop, an estimate was prepared for providing additional bituminous crust thickness."
Then, a letter from the OSD to the LG said that the parking was temporary and would be completely removed after Games. Finally, with 5% of work still remaining, the cost of the project went up by Rs 7.77 crore for work not factored in initially.