Reddy defends BRTS project acuses BSP of narrow politics

New Delhi, Nov 25(UNI)Defending the controversial Bus Rapid Transit Systems (BRTS) project, which has run into rough weather in Delhi, Union Urban Development Minister S Jaipal Reddy today said the BJP was indulging in populist tricks for narrow political gains, ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections.

He said his Ministry was helping implementation of the BRT in Ahmedabad, Rajkot and Surat in Gujarat, while Indore and Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh are also implementing them.

Other cities where BRTS is coming up are Pune in Maharashtra, Jaipur in Rajasthan and Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

''If the project was so much ridden with problems, then why have the BJP-ruled states like Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh adopted the BRT instead of the MRTS in their cities,'' he asked, while enumerating the benefits of such a transport system at the Economic Editors' Conference here.

He said urban development was too important for political parties to play narrow politics. ''If hiccups are there, those can always be eased out. There is no escaping from BRT--not just in India, across the world too,'' he said and pointed out that BRTS was anyday much less expensive than Metro rail.

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