Miscreants pelted stones at a BRTS bus and damaged a railing at the Valinath Chowk on the BRTS route near Helmet Circle on Sunday. They are suspected to have acted on behalf of local residents opposed to the snapping of road link between Memnagar and St Xavier’s School Loyola Hall. A man was also detained but his identity was not revealed.

Deputy Municipal Commissioner Utpal Padia confirmed that some hooligans damaged and tried to remove the railing on either side of the divider. The Ahmedabad Janmarg Ltd and AMC officials had closed the divider after taking the local residents into confidence, he said, adding that the AMC would once again fix the railings and convince the locals about the utility of having a divider.

The divider has been a bone of contention between the AMC and locals ever since the area became part of the BRT route and the circle at Valinath Chowk was removed. Inspector S D Patel of Gujarat University police station said that one Amrut Chaudhry, a BRT volunteer guard, lodged a complaint against Ramesh Rabari, Soma Rabari and a mob of around two dozen people for rioting, endangering lives of people and causing damage to public property estimated to be around Rs 7,000.

Meanwhile, the revenue generation from BRT buses has remained below expectation, said Padia, adding that there would be considerable increase once the link was extended beyond Chandranagar to Kankaria and Naroda via Narol.