Already faced with shortage of buses in its fleet, Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) has phased out nearly 900 buses in the last two-and-a-half years, but has not added even a single bus in its depleting fleet. According to its operational statistics report, DTC stopped operations of its 892 buses between April 2012 and June 30 this year.
DTC officials say most of these were standard-floor buses as their operation cost was very high and the entire fleet of such buses is in any case operating over the usual service ceiling. According to the report, DTC removed 446 buses from city roads during 2012-13, which is one of the largest numbers since 2003.
“During the period of 2013-14, 222 DTC buses were phased out from roads following which the numbers of total fleet came down to 5,223 buses, including AC and non-AC low-floor buses,” the report also said.In the month of May this year, 176 standard-floor buses were removed from service and 48 such buses were phased out from city roads in June.
The report also stated that there are currently around 1,216 standard-floor buses, which have completed the age of more than eight years. DTC has already started the process to remove these buses in a phased manner. However, after having failed to identify a company for procurement of buses on two previous occasions, the corporation recently issued a global tender for the procurement of 1,380 semi-floor buses even as one company has shown interested in the proposal. Presently, there is a demand for 11,000 buses in Delhi.
As per an agreement, DTC and Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS) have to run 5,500 buses each in the national Capital. But DTC currently operates around 4,999 buses while DIMTS has around 1,200 buses, a big shortfall from the required number of 5,500 buses.
“Till June this year, a total of 4,999 buses are in operation, including around 2,506 non-AC low-floor buses and around 1,375 AC low-floor buses,”the report said.