'Can Spend Crores on Ads But Not On Rail Project?' Supreme Court's 2nd Rap to AAP Govt in a Month

The Supreme Court on Tuesday, once again, pulled up the AAP government for not providing funds to the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) corridors to Alwar in Rajasthan and Panipat in Haryana.

Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said, “You can make 500 something crore budgetary provision for advertisement but you can’t make the same of 400 something crore for this project?”

The reprimand came after Arvind Kejriwal-led government informed that “some transfers” have been made.

Earlier, a bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia had stayed the order for a week, granting time to the government to comply with its earlier promise on payment at the request of its counsel.

The top court said that budgetary provision was something that the state government should look into but if such national projects were to be affected and money was spent on advertisements, it would be inclined to direct that those funds be transferred for this project.

Last week, on Friday, the Delhi government had said it has transferred Rs 415 crore for the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) project, four days ahead of the apex court-mandated deadline of November 28.

“Today, on November 24, payment of Rs 415 crore has been made to NCRTC by the transport department,” a statement from Delhi transport minister Ashok Gahlot’s office said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had last month inaugurated the maiden journey on the 17-km priority section of the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) train or RAPIDX, the country’s first mass rapid system dedicated to regional connectivity.

The inauguration ceremony took place at Sahibabad station of the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS corridor, which once fully completed, will reduce travel time between Delhi and Meerut to a little less than an hour.

The RRTS has been designed to reach a speed of 180 km per hour, while the operational speed it 160 km per hour. It is a “transformational” regional development initiative, which is designed to provide high-speed trains for intercity commuting every 15 minutes, which can go up to a frequency of every five minutes according to requirements, the Prime Minister’s Office earlier said.