Booking seats in buses for Delhiites is to be made hassle-free from June. The Delhi Government on Friday announced app-based Premium Bus Service allowing passengers to book their seats in buses through their smartphones.
Moreover, Premium Bus Service is for the elite class with higher fares which is aimed at encouraging car users to use public transport.
The Pioneer on Wednesday reported that the Government will announce the bus aggregator policy this week.
Only air-conditioned buses will ply under the scheme according to which one bus aggregator will have to run at least 50 vehicles to get a license from the Delhi Government’s Transport Department.
The registration of the buses will start from June 1. Transport Minister Gopal Rai said there will be no standing passengers and the buses will not be allowed to pick up passengers from the roads who haven’t made the booking
in advance.
He said the decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
“App users will be required to find buses going towards their destination and thereafter they can book their seat through their phone. Five minutes before the departure, bus aggregators will have to freeze bookings and display a list of passengers. Drivers of the vehicle cannot allow other passengers in the way who have not booked their seats,” said Rai, adding that the private bus aggregators will be free to decide their own fares.
“But if they misuse that freedom and charge excessively, then the Government will have the power to put an upper limit on the fares,”
Rai said.
Also, the Government has made it compulsory for the buses to have two CCTV cameras, Wi-Fi and GPS if they want to register under the new service. For women safety, bus aggregators will have to ensure panic button in their apps.
As per new policy, bus aggregators will determine the routes on which premium buses will ply from time to time and specify such routes along with the time schedule of each trip on its web-based application.
However, after accepting the booking of a passenger, aggregators cannot cancel the service except in cases of an accident or a breakdown. In such cases, the aggregator will either have to arrange an alternate bus or will have to refund passenger no less than twice the amount they received from the affected passengers.
“If bus aggregator cancels booking other then reason of break-down and force majeure, they will have to pay ten times the amount the fare received,” Rai said.
Contract carriage and stage carriage buses will ply under new scheme.
“The new scheme will provide better alternative option for car users, who don’t want to leave their vehicles, to travel in AC-buses to be regulated by the Government. We hope that through this scheme, volume of cars will reduce on roads,” Rai said.
Aggregator who have a fleet of up to 100 buses will have to give a bank guarantee of Rs 25 lakh, followed by Rs 50 lakh for above 100 buses and Rs 1 crore for above 500 crore.
The Minister said if bus aggregator allows unauthorised entry of passenger, a penalty of Rs 2,500 will be imposed and thereafter, Rs 5,000 will be imposed for each violation and the Government will impose Rs 5,000 on them per day for repeated violation. “If bus aggregators fail to pay fine, we will deduct amount from their bank guarantee,” the Minister added.