Gearing up to roll out the ambitious odd-even scheme from January 1 to curb pollution, the Delhi Government on Thursday said an additional fleet of 6,000 buses will be deployed to enhance public transport, besides increasing frequency of metro trains and allowing more autos on the roads.
A high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also decided to mark “separate bus lanes” across all arterial roads in the city by December 25. Motorists obstructing movement of buses in these lanes will be penalised.
PWD Minister Satyendar Jain said the AAP Government has decided to strictly implement the National Green Tribunal’s order to slap fine of Rs5,000 against officials concerned, including park in-charges, if burning of leaves and garbage - found to be a major source of air pollution - was detected in their areas.
The Government is also in talks with the Railways for improvement in frequency of trains running between Delhi and nearby cities of the NCR, said Jain, adding the Delhi Metro has assured the Government to operate metro services at peak frequency when the odd-even scheme will be rolled out for 15 days, initially.
The meeting was attended by all Delhi Ministers, top officials of Traffic Police and representatives of all departments and agencies concerned.
“We will run 6,000 buses as per cluster system. The drivers will be hired by the bus owners while DTC will arrange for conductors and decide the route,” Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai said.
The 4,000 buses will be “general” buses where some seats will be reserved for women commuters while 2,000 buses to be taken from 2,700 schools after their duty hours will have 50 per cent seats reserved for women, he said.
He said the strength of buses in the city will increase to 12,000 from existing 6,000.The Transport Minister said rules are being relaxed to allow more autos on the road.
Explaining the scheme, he said if a driver owns an auto, as per fresh norms he can give it to someone else to operate it. As per existing rules, only permit holder of a specific auto can ply the vehicle.
We will launch the first stage of Puchho app on Friday which will help people hire autos for commuting in case they are covered under the odd-even scheme,” he said.
The app will be launched for public on December 25.