In a move to provide last mile connectivity, the Arvind Kejriwal Government on Wednesday decided to rationalise the routes of the public transport system. The decision is based on the recommendations of the Route Rationalisation Study, conducted by the Delhi Government’s Transport Department.
According to the study, the 13 busiest transportation hubs in and around Delhi including railway stations, Connaught Place and ISBTs will now be connected to the Delhi Central Business District by a 5 to 10 minute frequency bus service.
“There will also be a guaranteed bus service to rural Delhi districts lacking connectivity. For last mile connectivity from Metro stations, a feeder service will be offered similarly. Additionally, Delhi’s connectivity with the NCR will be significantly enhanced. If the recommendations are put into practice, any passenger in Delhi will be able to access a bus service in a 15-minute window within a 500-metre radius,” the study said.
According to this study, Delhi’s current bus coverage, measured in compliance with the standards of 15 minutes and 500 metres, is only 49 per cent. It will be raised by the Delhi Government to 90 to 95 per cent. All of Delhi’s routes will now be featured together and categorised into four groups. The first will be the trunk network, which consists of 27 super trunk routes and three Central Business District circulator routes.
The buses will run every 5 to 10 minutes in this area. There will also be a primary network, with buses running every 10 to 15 minutes. The third, feeder network, where buses will run every 15 to 20 minutes, will be the secondary network. There are about 7,200 buses operating on 625 bus routes in Delhi. Similarly, 799 buses are operating on 72 Mini/RTV routes, while there are 14 routes for maxi cabs, with roughly 120 cars operating along each. Following the study, buses will now run every 5 to 10 minutes on 274 of the 625 regular bus routes. Aside from this, buses will continue to run on the remaining 351 routes in the same manner as they do now. The number of standard buses will rise from 7,200 to 8,494 in the near future. Mini-Midi buses will also be operated on 120 routes, totaling roughly 2,000, providing last-mile connectivity. Similar to that, 480 buses will operate on 44 routes as part of the Metro feeder service. The study categorises the 274 standard bus routes into several groups. There will be 30 trunk routes included in this study, of which five are new. The major network will include 154 routes altogether, including 18 new routes.
The secondary network will have 65 routes in total. Additionally, 12 new routes will bring the total number of NCR and airport routes to 38. Bus service will be radically increased in outer Delhi and its remote areas. People in several of the suburbs of Bawana, Narela, Burari, Najafgarh, and Chhatarpur, for instance, will have access to bus service. The Delhi Government will operate Mini and Midi feeder buses in these locations.
According to the study, the routes of the proposed CBD circulator include the ones from Mori Gate to Mori Gate which will cover Karol Bagh, Tis Hazari Court, Shivaji Stadium Terminal, Delhi Gate, ITO and the Central Secretariat. It will be roughly 22-km-long. The second route from New Delhi Railway Station to New Delhi Railway Station, which covers Delhi Gate, ITO, Humayun’s Tomb, Ashram, Lajpat Nagar, South Extension, AIIMS, Central Secretariat, Connaught Place, and New Delhi Route will be 31-km-long.