Transport minister attributes delay in arrival of buses to economic slump

NEWDELHI: The deadlines for addition of new buses to Delhi’s existing fleet have been affected by the economic slowdown and slump in the automobile industry, Delhi’s transport minister Kailash Gahlot said Monday explaining why the national capital has not received the 300 standard-floor cluster buses that were due for delivery in September and October.

“The economic slowdown has affected the timely arrival of buses. On our part, we are a 100% commitment to the matter and have regularly followed up with the concerned automobile companies; we visited their plants. We fail to see why they have failed to adhere to their commitment,” Gahlot said.

Delhi, at present, has around 5,500 buses, including those run by the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and also the orange clusters operated by concessionaires, against the estimated requirement of 11,000 buses. In August, 25 buses were added to the fleet, which was the first such addition in eight years.

During the flag-off, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had said that the city will get 4,000 new buses, including 1,000 electric buses, by next year. Of the total 4,000 buses, delivery of 1,000 Cng-run standard-floor cluster buses and the first batch of 165 Cng-run low-floor orange cluster buses was to be received in phases by December 31 this year.

Till now, Delhi has only witnessed induction of the 25 standard-floor cluster buses flagged off by Kejriwal in August. While another batch of 125 buses of the same type, due to arrive by September 30, and the next batch of 175 buses of the same fleet, scheduled to arrive in October, are yet to be received.

The automobile industry has been hit hard by the ongoing economic slowdown and several major players in the market have been forced to reduce their production capacity.

In August, sale of commercial vehicles in the country went down by 38.71% compared to the corresponding period in the previous year. In September, Gahlot himself visited an automobile plant in Lucknow to take stock of the situation.