DTC parking to take away college playground

The Delhi Transport Corporation is likely to get a new parking area adjacent to Dyal Singh College on Lodhi Road, the piece of land the institute has kept for a playground.

Though the South Delhi Municipal Corporation said that the one-hectare plot belongs to the civic agency, the institute claims that the land was granted to them by the city government.

However, the college authorities have agreed in-principle to give the land, close to central government offices at CGO complex, to park public transport buses, a senior official of the south civic agency said.

The plot, currently being used by the college, can accommodate over 50 buses.
“We are in consultation with the transport department and the land will be used for parking buses as there aren’t enough parking spots,” the official said.

The transport department has been eying the land for over three years.

The land in question was once a huge open drain, which was covered and renovated ahead of the Commonwealth Games in 2010 for parking buses.

The transport department had approached the South Corporation and asked the civic body to allot the land to the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC).

“However, after the games were over, Dyal Singh College allegedly took over that area by stretching its boundary walls,” the official said.

When Commissioner of South Delhi Municipal Corporation Manish Gupta was asked about the ‘disputed’ land, he said, “The drain comes under the jurisdiction of the respective corporation. And this stretch falls under the limits of the South Corporation, so it’s the civic agency’s land.”

‘Our land’

But the college authorities said that the piece of land belongs to the institute.

“The land has been granted to us by the city government’s Land and Development Authority,” principal of Dyal Singh College I S Bakshi told Deccan Herald. “We plan to turn it into a playground,” he added.

The SDMC commissioner said that the civic agency has spent Rs 50 crore to develop that land.

“Why will we give it to the college when it can be put to better use?” Gupta said.

“The Delhi government will have to set its priority whether it wants to use that land for a playground or for parking buses, which is the need of the hour,” he said.