Delhi Transport Corporation Board has approved the proposal of 1000 low floor buses uses on which 500 will be AC and 500 non-AC. Minister Kailash Gehlot said that the government has assigned the objective target to launch four thousand new buses on the roads. Of these, 1000 buses will be of DTC. After 9 years, DTC is going to meet new buses.
The minister also said that the government wanted to buy non-AC buses because there are many passengers who prefer non-AC buses because the tickets are much cheaper.
New buses have not been included in the DTC fleet since 2010. In 2009-10 DTC purchased 2500 non AC and 1275 AC buses. Since then, the tender process was done several times for DTC buses but new buses could not be reached. Buses are being added to the cluster scheme.
In May last year, DTC was tender for one thousand standard floor buses, but the tender failed. Now the proposals of new buses can be brought in the meeting of the Cabinet soon.
Today, 32 lakh passengers are traveling.
Currently, 3882 buses of DTC are running on 557 routes, including 18 routes of NCR. In this, 31 lakh people travel every day. There are 1789 buses in the cluster scheme, more than 12 lakh people travel. The number of DTC buses is continuously decreasing. The announcement was made in the budget too
The government has started preparing for the launch of three thousand buses in the cluster scheme long before. It has also been mentioned in the budget.
In the Budget Speech, Deputy CM and finance minister Manish Sisodia had told that a thousand new buses will be added in DTC fleet in 2019-20. Along with this, the cluster scheme will have 1000 standard floor CNG buses, 1000 low floor AC CNG buses and 1000 low floor AC E-buses.
A senior DTC official told that an attempt was made to introduce the tender process to bring new buses of DTC, but the tender failed. The biggest reason for this is that bus companies tell the cost of the cost as much.
Prior, the plans of procurement were hit due as despite the issuance of tenders there were no buyers. According to officials filed by the transport department in the SC, a 2008 tender for 750 non-AC, semi- low-floor buses and 250 AC semi-low-floor buses was cancelled as the rates quoted by Ashok Leyland were on the "higher side".
The DTC has a fleet of 3,944 buses while the DIMTS (Delhi Integrated Multimodal Transit System) runs 1,634 buses under the cluster scheme, as per the Transport department statistics. The combined strength of around 5,600 buses covers nearly 75 percent of the identified routes in the city.
A total of 799 minibusses also ply on 124 routes. Last week, The Delhi Cabinet on approved the reimbursement cost of fitting hydraulic lifts in 1,000 standard floors CNG buses, a move aimed at benefitting differently labeled people.
The buses are being procured by the Delhi government. The government in recent years has been working towards CNG buses and also to bring electric buses. Both the projects got sanction from the Cabinet and the work is on.
