After a high point in the Capital’s public transportation regime – especially for the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), which expanded its bus fleet significantly during the Commonwealth Games – half a decade later, its buses are yet to emerge as a robust alternative for commuters.
Five years later, around one-fifth of the DTC’s fleet of close to 5,000 low-floor and 1,500 cluster buses, remains off the roads on a daily basis. In spite of the survey, which concluded that the Capital needed a fleet of at least 10,000 buses, no manufacturers are currently willing to step forward and fulfil the demand.
The DTC’s fleet with a promised growth of 3,150 to 4,705 between October 2010 and October 2015 with an increase in daily ridership from 22 lakh to 39 lakh during the same period, suffered as many as 700 to 800 daily breakdowns this summer even as lack of availability of operational staff, particularly during evening rush hours, continues to plague it.
Soon after being elected, Transport Minister Gopal Rai, in the midst of a DTC strike over the murder of a driver in a road rage incident in early May this year, noted that 600 to 900 DTC buses remained off roads on an average due to the non-availability of operational staff; specifically drivers.
The DTC is, also, yet to deliver on its promise of offering a common travel card ‘like bus fleet operators in London, Paris, Miami and several Australian and American cities’.
“We are in the process of procuring more buses, revamping the DTC’s own maintenance unit and addressing the issue of last-mile connectivity which has been found to be a major factor when it comes to the usage of public transport,” said a government official.
The DTC has started the process of phasing out its entire fleet of standard-floor or ‘yellow’ buses, which it says are beyond repair and procuring 500 midi buses in a phased manner, the official added.
In an interview to The Hindu in May this year, Mr. Rai had stated that he viewed ‘affecting a systemic change in the way Delhi commutes’ as a challenge, but hoped to popularise public transport to the extent that ‘people decide to use it instead of personal vehicles.’
