HC asks authorities to consider plea for dedicated lane for emergency vehicles

New Delhi, Mar 19 (PTI): The Delhi High Court Friday directed the authorities to treat as representation a plea seeking a reserved lane for unrestricted movement of emergency vehicles round the clock.
A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh said a policy decision is required in this matter and the court does not see any reason to issue a direction to the authorities in this regard.
“It all depends on the width of a road and traffic on the road. We direct the respondents to treat the petition as a representation and decide it in accordance with rules, law and policy applicable in the facts of the case,” the bench said and disposed of the plea. The court was hearing a petition filed by Vinay Kumar seeking direction to the Delhi government’s Transport Department and Delhi Police to provide a dedicated reserved lane for unrestricted use of emergency services 24 hours, 7 days a week.
The plea, filed through advocate Ankit Sharma, also sought a direction to Delhi Police to ensure immediate compliance, implementation and enforcement of the law and issue direction to Delhi Disaster Management Authority to provide the requisite support, framework and infrastructure and resources for Implementation of the dedicated reserved lanes.
The petitioner said that in case of emergencies, people will have the benefit of reaching the hospitals quickly if dedicate lanes are provided by the government. The plea also said that as per a report, Delhi has 56 per cent traffic congestion, while 190 hours are lost in traffic congestion on an average.
It said that at present, the response time of emergency services like police and fire services has increased due to the huge daily traffic congestions on road.
“As it is the fundamental duty of the state to provide timely medical aid to every citizen, it is of utmost importance that such infrastructure is created that emergency services are provided free unrestricted passage, 24 hours and 7 days a week so as to ensure that they can respond timely to the emergency situations and save lives,” it said.