In a move that is expected to benefit lakhs of bus commuters, the city’s cluster bus fleet will be strengthened soon. The fleet has around 600 buses operational, and 500 more buses will be added by mid-September. With this, the total number of orange Delhi Transit buses plying in the city will cross the 1,000 mark. The development came during a review meeting held at the Transport Department with the private players on Tuesday.
The scheme, which is a joint venture between the State Government and private companies, has faced inordinate delays in bringing buses on roads. Transport Commissioner Puneet Goel said, “By September, 500 more buses will be added to the present fleet of buses operating under the cluster bus scheme. While 40 buses will be plying under cluster 2, 140 buses will hit roads under clusters 3, 4 and 5 jointly.”
“About 100 buses will be plying under cluster 6 and another 150 under cluster 8, though we are pressing the operator of cluster 8 to bring the number to 250,” Goel added.
The department has also asked the Mumbai-based private operator for clusters 7 and 9 to provide a status on the buses. Responding to the inordinate delays facing the cluster bus scheme, he said, “The delays are caused due to the lengthy paperwork procedure. The operators want the department to assist them with the financial closure.”
The bus users, however, will have to wait longer for the air-conditioned Delhi Transit buses to hit roads. “The manufacturers of the AC buses are yet to get type approval for the prototype of the AC buses,” he added. While cluster 6 will have buses on routes connecting South and Central Delhi, cluster 8 will have buses on routes connecting West and South.
There are currently about 600 cluster buses running on 30 odd routes under Delhi Transit. While private companies run and maintain these buses, the revenue earned by these buses goes to the Transport Department.
The department, however, pays a fixed amount to these companies every day on a kilometre basis. Delhi’s 657 bus routes have been divided into 17 clusters. More than 4,400 buses will run in these 17 clusters combined.