Will U-Special bus service hit Delhi streets again?
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 low-floor 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 college and free,” he said.