Prey to protests
NEW DELHI: Delhi University has said it will take “appropriate action” for the resumption of the University Special (U-special) bus service — once a commuting mainstay for college students in the Capital — which has been suspended for the past two years, since the onset of the pandemic.
When asked, university vicechancellor Yogesh Singh said he was unaware that the bus service was not operational. “I will look into the matter and take appropriate action for the resumption of bus services,” he said.
The bus service, which ran between North Campus and several localities across Delhi, was suspended in March 2020 after the first Covid-19 lockdown was enforced in the Capital.
The U-specials have remained suspended despite all Covid-related restrictions being lifted, in-person classes being held on campus and all of the city’s public transit systems operating at full capacity.
A senior official from DU’S students welfare department said the matter will be taken up with the Delhi government’s transport department and the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC). “It is in process,” the official said without disclosing further details.
A DTC official said that while the bus service did not resume after the lockdown, the corporation was willing to restart it.
“The U-special bus service is no longer in operation in Delhi. But the DTC will consider resuming U-specials if it receives requests from DU or the DU Students’ Union or any colleges. We would also like to make it clear that, as on date, we have not received any such request from the stakeholders,” said a senior DTC official responsible for bus operations in the city, asking not to be named.
The official added that the demand for the U-specials has reduced over the years, especially after the Delhi Metro launched the Kashmere Gate-vishwavidyalaya (Yellow Line) route that directly connects the North Campus.
“Earlier, we used to get a lot of letters from the university and student groups demanding routes and more buses. But, it gradually reduced due to the Metro and also because our normal bus routes were increased in the North Campus as well as the South Campus. So, students who cannot afford the Delhi Metro still use the usual DTC buses which are much cheaper,” the official said.
According to DTC data, the corporation ran 63 U-specials in 2007-08, which came down to 17 by 2019-20.
“While the Metro has taken away a major chunk of our passengers, those coming from economically weaker sections still prefer DTC buses because the ₹100 monthly student pass is accepted even in our AC buses and it offers unlimited bus rides, whereas, a single journey Metro fare can be as high as ₹60,” a second DTC official said who also asked not to be named.
The bus route and DU
For decades, U-specials plied from the Patel Chest Institute in North Campus area to various destinations across Delhi. Long before Vishwavidyalaya was a Metro station, students depended on these buses for their daily commute to their colleges.
Hundreds waited at bus shelters across the university for that green bus with a yellow stripe in the middle (DTC buses looked like this long before they became lowfloor and trendy) with a board on which “U-spl” was written in either white paint (or chalk when the depot ran out of paint). The conductor would often be seen standing in the middle of the bus, wondering why he was on it when almost all the passengers used their student concessional passes for trips.
The U-special had limited stops and reached DU faster than normal buses, which would halt at all bus stops on the way.
Delhi transport minister Kailash Gahlot, who got his bachelor’s degree in political science from Sri Venkateswara College in 1995, followed by a LLB and LLM from the Campus Law Centre, says U-specials were “a moving college”.
“I used to travel from Najafgarh to the campus, and in all those years, I do not remember buying a bus ticket. Nobody would check the passes inside the bus. Who would ask college students? It took me 1-1.5 hours, but it was a moving
The buses were also the first victims of any protest on the campus, as students preferred to vent their ire on them if they had any grievance the university was not attending to. They also used to be the most common promise for university politicians. More U-specials, regular services, better buses – these used to be among the common promises on the manifesto of any person who has ever contested an election on the campus.
Dr Savithri Singh, principal (retired) Acharya Narendra Dev College, called the U-specials the “lifeline” of DU students. Singh, who studied BSC (hons) in Botany from Miranda House college in 1970-73, recalled that DTC used to be the Delhi Transport Undertaking (DTU) back then.
“The DTU buses were so bad, it felt like you were packed like sardines. So, if we did not have the U-specials back then, those of us who lived far away would have never reached the university. I used to stay in Kidwai Nagar and took the U-special from AIIMS. On its route, it stopped at South Extension and sometimes at Andrews Ganj, and then straight to the university, so it was very quick. Missing your U-special meant you’re going to miss classes that day. I was a university-level basketball player, so after classes they used to stop at the national stadium just for me,” she said.
Varsha Joshi, a 1995 batch IAS officer who studied BSC in Physics from Hindu College in 1988-91, said, “My love for Delhi started through the U-specials. I have travelled from three locations in
U-specials — Andrews Ganj, Lodhi Complex area and RK Puram on the Ring Road. The biggest gift to Delhi was the Mudrika Seva, which is the Ring Road bus service. For people like us who otherwise didn’t get out much, the Mudrika Seva was a chance to see entire Delhi. The other great route was Number 26, which started from Lodhi Colony and ended somewhere near Kingsway Camp in North Campus,” she said.
Rajesh Jha, professor at DU’S Rajdhani College, said the buses were used for student politics as well.
“The U-special used to be an integral part of the campaign plans for the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) elections. I myself had campaigned at the Patel Chest bus stop and taken the U-specials on different routes to electioneering,” he recalled.
For Nandita Narain, a DU student between 1976 and 1981, and now a Mathematics professor at St Stephen’s College, the U-special turned out to be a “life saver”, quite literally, when a freak tornado hit the university campus area in North Delhi in March, 1978, killing at least 24 people and injuring 700 others.
“I was at the Maurice Nagar bus stop, right opposite Ramjas College, waiting for the U-special, and an awful storm started. I had to hang on to the railing of the bus stop to stop from being swept away. I remember cars were flying up in the air... The U-special came and I hopped into it. It saved my life. There was a lot of speculation back then whether it was a tornado or a UFO because authorities found increased radioactivity in the area too,” she said.