The Delhi High Court on Wednesday gave the Aam Aadmi Party government three weeks to submit an action plan on where it will park the 1,000 low-floor electric buses it will buy. The court observed that the government had issued orders to buy the buses before finalising a plan for parking space, PTI reported.

“Will these 1,000 buses fly in air?” the bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar asked the Delhi government and the Delhi Transport Corporation. The court said getting parking space was not like buying buses or potatoes.

If the government does not submit an action plan by February 28, the court said it would order a stay on the tender to procure the buses and initiate contempt action against officials.

“We are unable to understand what would be the fate of these buses,” the court said, asking for a timeline on when it would procure the buses. “Land is something you cannot manufacture. So the concern should not be the cost, but optimal use of the land [for parking].”

The government had said they have space to park the buses and multi-level parking facilities were not needed.

The bench was hearing a petition filed by disabled rights activist Nipun Malhotra against the Delhi government’s original plan to buy 2,000 standard-floor buses for Rs 300 crore. The government has said the companies – Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland – charged too much for the low-floor buses. The companies, however, had denied the allegation during the previous hearing.