Not one new bus added to DTC fleet in the last three years

NEW DELHI: Over the last three years, the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government promised many major reforms in the transport sector. However, many of these are stuck in the paper work stage, including the announcement to add 10,000 buses to the DTC fleet.

The Delhi Cabinet had earlier given in-principle nod to a proposal for procurement of 1,000 CNG-run standard floor buses for the cluster scheme and 1,000 buses for Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC).

"Each new bus would come equipped with three internet protocol cameras, panic buttons, in-built GPS and anti-skid features. The buses under the cluster scheme operated by Delhi Integrated Multi Modal System (DIMTS) were procured seven years ago in 2011," claimed a senior Transport Department official.

Currently, the monthly deficit in operation of cluster buses is about Rs1.92 lakh per bus, said the official.

Delhi requires 11,000 buses, 5,500 buses each for the DTC and the cluster scheme. Currently, the DTC has 5,443 buses. However, in peak hours, it only runs 3,781 buses.

Meanwhile, 1,648 buses are currently being run under the cluster scheme.

After procurement of 2,000 new buses, the government would like to add 3,000 more to raise the number to 11,000.

However, the city government has not added a single new bus since 2011.

"DTC, in particular, has lost daily passengers from 47 lakh per day in 2012-13 to 30 lakh per day in 2016... about 17 lakh daily passenger loss. If no new buses are added now, the entire fleet will get nearly phased out by 2025 due to ageing and phase out," a report said.

One of the major causes of drop in ridership, according to the report, is low frequency.

"Less than 1 per cent of DTC routes have a frequency of one bus every five minutes during peak hours. Less than 25 per cent DTC routes have frequency of one bus every 15 minutes. Rest of the routes have much longer waiting time."

It further said that almost 700 buses, on any given day, remain used, mostly due to breakdowns.

The AAP government and DTC on Wednesday even urged the Delhi High Court to permit procurement of 500 standard floor buses for the, saying that these vehicles were primarily meant for rural areas on the city outskirts where the roads were poor.

But the proposed procurement was opposed by a differently-abled person, Nipun Malhotra, who moved two PIL petitions challenging the Delhi government and the DTC's decision to buy 2,000 standard floor buses (SFBs) instead of the low floor buses (LFBs) for the national Capital.