Cabinet clears proposal to buy 2,000 buses in big push for public transport
The govt will procure a total of 2,000 buses, which includes 1,000 DTC and 1,000 cluster buses.
All these buses would be standardfloor buses. In next eight months, cluster buses will start operating.
order to strengthen public transport in the national capital, the Delhi government on Friday approved a proposal to procure 2,000 buses, including 1,000 for the state-run Delhi Transport Corporation.
These non-AC standard-floor buses will be rolled out within a year, transport minister Kailash Gahlot said after the cabinet meeting. The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.
“As per the decision, the government would procure a total of 2,000 buses, which includes 1,000 DTC and 1,000 cluster buses. All these buses would be standardfloor buses. In next eight months, cluster buses will start operating. DTC’s new fleet will come in one year,” Gahlot said.
In a departure from the past, the DTC has also decided to maintain its own fleet. Till now, the operational low-floor buses under the DTC were maintained by the manufacturers Tata and Ashok Leyland, who had supplied the buses ahead of the Commonwealth Games 2010.
Officials said the change in the decision on maintenance will make procurement easier as many bus manufacturing companies had not been showing interest in DTC’s tenders, floated several times in the past for the procurement of new buses, due to the maintenance costs.
The minister dismissed arguments that DTC would be shut down due to shortage of buses.
“After almost four years, DTC will get new buses and in view of this, it is a historic decision (to procure new buses),” Gahlot said.
The current fleet of the DTC stands at 3,944 while the DIMTS (Delhi Integrated Multimodal Transit System) runs 1,634 buses under the cluster scheme.
The combined strength of around 5,600 buses covers nearly 75 per cent of the identified routes in the city.