100 medium, small buses may ply to congested areas by end of year
The Gurugram Metropolitan City Bus Limited (GMCBL) is taking preparations to introduce 100 medium and small-sized CNG (compressed natural gas) buses by the end of this year so that it can make inroads into the interiors of the city, where the buses are currently unable to reach, said officials in the know of the matter.
According to authorities, there are 200 buses of the GMCBL, of which 150 ply daily in Gurugram and rest are plying in Faridabad since February 27 this year. However, the existing fleet mostly has large low-floor buses (12m-long), due to which they mostly ply on the main roads, said officials. There are several narrow roads cutting through a large number of congested and densely populated areas in the city, where the bus service has not been able to penetrate due to the operation of only large buses.
Authorities said the new fleet will have a combination of 9m-long and 7m-long buses. The tender for the buses will be floated soon after the Haryana government gives its approval for the project. The new buses will help the authority to expand its reach from the main roads to the interiors of the city. According to authorities, work is going on to finalise the new route, which would be commercially viable as a large number of passengers are likely to opt for the city bus service. A senior official said they are eyeing routes where mostly three-wheelers or other transport facilities are in operation but are not covered by the city bus service.
Officials said currently, the fleet of 200 buses are plying on 37 routes with 1,666 stops across the city and in Faridabad. The authority is considering 32-34 more routes in Gurugram for operating the new fleet of buses they are acquired.
Anju Chaudhary, one of the directors of GMCBL and CEO, said the count of passengers availing the city bus service crosses 80,000-90,000 on a weekday and is expected to go up to 200,000 passengers or more with the induction of the new buses, which will mostly ply on the new routes. “Once we get permission from the government, we will sign an MoU with the Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT) to act as our consultant in the project,” said Chaudhary, adding that the state government will decide if GMCBL will go for an open tender to hire a firm for running the buses or everything would be done via CIRT.
Senior CIRT officials will be given the responsibility to finalize the technicalities, such as which kind of small or mediumsized buses can be used to cater to passengers in the internal roads of the city. “We expect to finalise the tender in the next three months... If everything goes right, the new buses shall start operating in Gurugram in the next six to eight months,” said a senior GMCBL official.
Shekhar Dhole, head of the safety and homologation wing, CIRT, said they will be providing technical assistance to GMCBL in the project and will have no role to play in the operation of buses. “The CIRT will conduct a study of roads and needs of Gurugram to help GMCBL finalise the number of medium and small size buses. The buses will have the latest safety features. Once we get into an agreement with GMCBL, we will provide all the technical help,” he said.
Dhole said the buses will have an inbuilt fire suppression system. “No human intervention would be required in case a fire breaks out. The era of installing alarm systems is gone,” he said, adding there would be reverse parking alarms and other safety features in these buses.
“The manufacturer will have to ensure the engine and chassis, including the safety features, are there in all the buses. This is to ensure the engine or equipment specification of each and every bus is the same and compatible with each other,” said Dhole, adding that they will be going for a single manufacturer and avoid third-party intervention so that in case the safety equipment, engine or chassis of a bus malfunctions in an untoward situation, there is no blame game between different stakeholders.
“We will be able to cater to the people living in the interiors of the city once the small buses are brought on board. They will act as feeder buses as they will enhance connectivity to the interiors as well as feed to the existing routes used by large buses,” the CEO said.
Officials said the small and mini buses will also help reduce the load on the large buses, which have low floors and frequently break down on bad roads.
The senior official quoted above said there was a proposal of acquiring 50 low-floor battery operated large buses for the city but it got scrapped after the state government decided that it would purchase such buses on its own and give them to districts as per needs.
Quoting a study carried out by the Delhi Integrated MultiModal Transit System Limited a few years ago, officials said given the roads in Gurugram, it can support plying of up to 500 buses for mass transportation on a daily basis. “We are at 200 buses right now. By the end of the year, we will be running 300 buses once everything is finalised... We will attempt to have 500 buses in our fleet in the next few years,” said the official.
Kirti Yadav, a second year B.Sc student of Government Girls’ College in Gurugram Sector 14, said, “People won’t have to walk in this heat. Such a public transport will also not burn a hole in the common man’s pocket.”