Millennium Park Bus Depot

Millennium Park Bus Depot
View of the depot during 2010 Commonwealth Games
Location	Outer Ring Road, Nizamuddin East, Delhi, India
Coordinates	28°36′13″N 77°15′19.8″E / 28.60361°N 77.255500°E / 28.60361; 77.255500
Owned by	Delhi Transport Corporation
History
Opened	17 September 2010

The Millennium Park Bus Depot is a major bus station located in Delhi, India. It is currently the largest bus depot in the world. Constructed primarily by the city's Public Works Department, the depot was inaugurated on 17 September 2010. The depot occupies an area of 243,000 m² (60 acres), and has the capacity to park up to 1,000 buses at a time under shed, constituting 14% of the total parking capacity of all DTC depots combined (7,000 buses). Though initially used exclusively for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the depot has been used as a regular bus station operated by the Delhi Transport Corporation post the Games. While the benefits of the depot were well-recognized, the depot was also the center of much controversy and criticism especially regarding its "temporary" nature and the violation of environmental norms.

The Delhi Development Authority envisioned the bus depot as a part of the Central Government's "Master Plan 2021" for Delhi, and the Zonal Development Plan-O. In accordance with this, the Government constituted the Yamuna River Development Authority to examine the feasibility of the proposal. In 2007, after inviting suggestions and objections from several quarters, the panel approved the construction of the depot.

In January 2009, the city-level Public Works Department (PWD) was provided with three possible places to set up the depot. Finally, the location of the depot was decided to be opposite to the Millennium Indraprastha Park, located on the Outer Ring Road near the Nizamuddin Bridge; incidentally, the depot was ultimately situated next to the Games Village near the Akshardham Temple, on the opposite side of the river Yamuna. Since the depot happened to be on the banks of the river, the DTC had to obtain special clearance so as to allow construction in spite of a moratorium which expressly forbade construction on the river banks. Land was obtained from two thermal power stations: the Indraprastha Power Station and the Rajghat Power Station, and 29 acres of land was cleared from them for use. Later, more land was given to construct the facilities of the depot.