Only one bidder and a petition stall govt’s plan to roll out 2,000 buses
ANOTHER SETBACK Plan to procure new buses to aid Delhi Transport Corporation’s depleting fleet hits multiple roadblocks, city at present has 5,429 buses against the required 11,000, as per court orders
NEW DELHI: The Delhi government’s plan to add 2,000 new buses to city’s dying public bus transport fleet this year onwards has hit multiple roadblocks.
Contrary to the plan, according to which the first batch of about 300 out of 2,000 buses were supposed to come on road between September and November this year, the roll out is likely to either be delayed or scrapped, government officials said.
To solve Delhi’s bus transport scarcity, two Delhi government companies — Delhi Transport Corporation(dtc) and Delhi Integrated Multi-modal Transit System (DIMTS) — were to purchase 1,000 buses each.
A senior government official said the reason for the delay in getting buses on the road is its procurement process, which has been challenged in the Delhi High Court.
A petitioner has approached court, alleging that the proposed buses are not being disabled friendly.
To add to the government’s woes, the tender floated by DTC for 1,000 buses has found only one bidder.
“That tender does not make much difference as the matter of procuring 2,000 buses is now subjudice. It won’t be apt to comment on it any further,” said Manoj Kumar, managing director of DTC.
Owing to the ongoing court case, the DIMTS has kept the procurement process for these buses on hold.
“While DTC’S tenders did not work out well, the DIMTS had managed to get four bidders. It had reached the stage of awarding the work order. But everything has been paused for now because of the case,” a senior official from the transport department said on condition of anonymity.
The setback will not only hit the government, but also the public as Delhi’s bus fleet today stands at 5,429 against the need of 11,000, as per court orders and government reports. Buses were last added to the city’s fleet in 2011 and before that it was in 2008.
In November 2017, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had announced that the government would roll out 1,000 electric buses but on May 18, the government clarified in a press statement that they had no plans to get the electric buses.
In a press statement, a government spokesperson said the government had only given an affidavit to t he Supreme Court that they were only ‘ considering’ to buy 1,000 electric buses from the environment compensation charge fund collected from commercial vehicles entering the city.
In December last year, the Supreme Court, while approving implementation of the ‘comprehensive action plan’ to deal with the city’s pollution crisis, had asked the government to roll out 10,000 buses by the end of this year.
As per the updated Outcome Budget, 2018-19, the government has proposed to bring in 291 buses between September and November this year.
The remaining 1,709 buses are to arrive between December this year and July, 2019.