3 days to go: Govt in race to get more buses for odd-even

NEW DELHI: The odd-even road rationing scheme is just three days away from coming into effect and, so far, the Delhi government has managed to arrange only a little over 70 private buses on rent, against the target of 2,000.

The lukewarm response from transporters to provide buses for public transport during the odd-even drive (November 4-15) sent the Delhi government into a tizzy, prompting transport minister Kailash Gahlot to call an emergency meeting on Thursday.

Government officials and transporters said that by the time the odd-even drive kicks in on Monday, 1,000-1,500 private CNG buses are likely to be added. Many of these buses, however, will be available between 8 am and 12.30pm and between 3.30pm and 8.30pm as transporters conveyed to the government on Thursday that they cannot forsake school duty during the odd-even drive.

During the 12-day road rationing arrangement, the government has estimated that at least 12 lakh registered vehicles will be off the city roads every day. If one adds vehicles coming from neighbouring cities as well, because they, too, will have to follow the rule, the government

has pegged the number of cars going off the road daily as around 20 lakh.

Apart from the 389 kilometres of the Delhi Metro, the Delhi government currently has only 5,558 state-run buses to bear the extra passenger load, of those forgoing cars. All private petrol, diesel, CNG and hybrid vehicles will have to follow the rule, except two-wheelers, those driven by women and those ferrying children in school uniforms.

A delegation of transporters that attended the meeting Thursday, complained that the government was resorting to “arm-twisting”, in the form intensified action against permit violations, to make transporters give up buses.

“Because we could not offer the desired number of buses on a last-minute notice, the government is harassing us in the garb of a crackdown. At least 60 private buses were seized on account of permit violations in just a single day. Before that, the figure for such violations was in single digits,” Harish Sabharwal, chairman, United Front of Transport Associations (UFTA), said.

Gahlot confirmed the action taken against private buses but refuted the allegations made by the UFTA. “All agencies intensify their enforcement drives to mitigate pollution when the air quality worsens. There is no link as implied by UFTA. In the meeting Thursday, we requested all transporters to provide as many buses as they can so that the public is not inconvenienced,” he said.

Sabharwal said the council of ministers “seemed to have been misguided” by the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) that 2,000 spare private CNG buses were available with transporters for the 12-day drive, that, too, when schools are open.

“We still could have arranged more buses, but the government informed us very late. By the time the drive begins on Monday, we are hoping to provide 1,000 to 1,500 buses,” he said.