Corp grapples with badly ageing fleet

NEW DELHI: With nearly 77% of Delhi’s low-floor buses ageing, the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) is facing an uphill task of maintaining them.

On Wednesday a DTC bus whose tyre burst led to two lives being lost. It also injured three people after the driver lost control over and rammed an auto and an e-rickshaw.

In February alone, 5,950 breakdowns were recorded from a fleet of 3,780 DTC buses that are plying on city roads. The problem is that the maintenance cost of these buses is so high that manufacturers do not want to take the onus on them, DTC officials said.

“We pay the manufacturers for the maintenance of the buses. But, they claim the cost is not enough and their expenses are far more. Our audits show what we pay is fine,” an official said.

A lack of consensus on the issue could impact the quality of maintenance work, said experts.

For AC buses, the DTC pays the manufacturers ₹4.10 per km for the first 75,000 km or one year; ₹5 per km for 1.5 lakh km or two years; and ₹7.10 per km for 2.1 lakh km or three years, whichever is later.

For non-AC buses, the annual maintenance contract (AMC) is ₹3.2 per km, ₹4.60 per km and ₹6.50 per km respectively. The AMC or annual maintenance contract was added to tenders in 2007, when 650 buses were procured.

However, rising breakdowns and penalties imposed by DTC prompted bus manufacturers, especially major manufacturers — Tata and Ashok Leyland — to express their reluctance to continue with the AMC clause.

“Manufacturers backed out from participating in the bids. Because of this, tenders failed repeatedly since 2014,” another official said.

Following this, the Delhi government recommended doing away with the AMC clause. But, a decision has still not been taken on the modalities of it.