Purple,orange cluster buses to hit Capital roads only by mid-Feb

The wait for new buses,which were supposed to start running in South Delhi,just got a little longer.

The wait for new buses,which were supposed to start running in South Delhi,just got a little longer. A batch of 50 swanky low-floor buses,part of the first cluster which was supposed to start operating by this month-end,will drive onto city roads only by mid-February. Though Starbus,the operator of the first cluster,has the buses ready,the Transport department is still in the process of readying the temporary depot allotted at Millennium Park.

Transport Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely had earlier promised that the new fleet of buses — non-airconditioned orange buses and airconditioned purple buses — will be on the roads by the end of the month. The launch of the buses was already delayed as they were initially slated to make an appearance by the start of the Commonwealth Games.

Though the Transport department could not find a depot earlier,temporary space has now been created in the Millennium Park depot. Meanwhile,the department is in the process of developing maintenance facilities. Transport Commissioner R K Verma told Newsline,“The buses arrived a few days ago,and civil work on the servicing pit has begun now. It will take us about three weeks to hand them over to the operator. We should be ready by mid-February to run the buses.”

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However,this is only a temporary arrangement,and another area owned by the Power department has been identified at Friends Colony. It will eventually be allotted as a permanent depot for the cluster.

The first set of buses,to be pressed into service on the BRT Corridor,will run on four routes — 419 (Ambedkar Nagar to Old Delhi Railway Station),423 (Ambedkar Nagar to Mori Gate Terminal),522 (Ambedkar Nagar to Old Rajendra Nagar) and 411 (Ambedkar Nagar to Mori Gate). Once these routes are finalised,the buses will be placed accordingly on the 32 routes allotted to the operator. The fleet of 231 buses to be delivered by Starbus will be non-airconditioned ones.

The buses will have several state-of-the-art features to ensure a comfortable ride for commuters. Fitted with GPS and GPRS systems,the new buses will have display boards and a public addressal system that gives out information on approaching bus stands. With a seating capacity of 35 passengers and wheelchair space for the differently-abled,these buses also boast of features like in-built speed limiting devices,pneumatically controlled entrance-exit doors with emergency controls and a gas leakage detection alarming system.

As part of the corporatisation scheme,657 bus routes covering both DTC and private operations were classified into 17 clusters to mitigate on-road competition and provide network benefits. Private and DTC buses on each route will be in the proportion of 40:60 respectively,and will be gradually enhanced to 60:40. The unified time table for DTC as well as private operators will also be implemented to ensure reliability of service,officials said. The new fleet of buses is expected to bring relief to the Capital transport system,following the Blueline phase-out.

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