New Delhi: When national capital faces an emergency air, the Delhi government tries to hire 1,000 personal buses to add public transport fleets, which function with reduced Covid-19 capacity.
However, the city faces a lack of acute buses even before the pandemic.
While the city needs at least 11,000 buses according to the estimated Delhi government itself, the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) fleet has been depleted over the past decade.
The last time the large-scale procurement occurred was during the Commonwealth 2010 game when a low-up floor bus was added to the DTC fleet.
Display free DTC has become a city spine.
Up and the spread of the metro, it is truly extraordinary that the corporation has not bought a single bus since 2010.
The bus reaches the metro where it cannot.
Both modes complement each other.
Public transportation must be encouraged in the city where pollution kills.
More CNG buses, both public and private, must be obtained.
Of the 6,204 buses in 2010, the DTC fleet has been reduced to 3,762, where 2,644 buses were purchased from Tata Motors between 2007 and 2010 and approached the end of life.
Tide for the shortcomings, the DTC must ask the state transportation authority to allow the bus to run for 15 years from the date of registration, instead of 12 years according to the Norm of the JNNURM procurement contract.
While DTC cannot get a bus for almost a decade, especially on the issue of an annual maintenance contract (AMC), the number involved through a private concession holder under the cluster scheme has risen.
In 2016, when the first strange scheme was first launched, the DTC has 4,121 buses, while there are around 1,600 buses operating under the cluster scheme.
The number of buses under the cluster scheme is 3,033 now, taking the total public transport fleet to 6,795, which is higher than the number a decade ago.
However, the city population and public transportation requests have also risen since then.
“The process of procuring more buses is on track,” said Minister of Transport Kailash Gahlot to TOI.
“Many depots also come and I personally review the construction and electrification of the depot.
Without a depot to park the bus, the number of buses cannot go up and this has become a barrier for us in adding more buses.
The government also builds a multilevel depot bus to tide due to lack of space available to create a new one, “he added.
Gahlot said, “Bus induction and construction and electrification depot is a priority for us.
I review progress every week.
Thousand buses will come if BJP does not accuse fraud in the procurement process.” LG Anil Baijal has formed a three-member committee after complaints by BJP, which examine the tender process and did not find irregularities.
However, it is recommended to floating fresh tenders for AMC.