The national Capital continues to await a robust public transport system. The Delhi Government’s ambitious cluster bus scheme has failed to strengthen its network in the city. The scheme, which was launched in 2007, had to roll out 4,400 buses on the roads by the Commonwealth Games 2010. However, even after the lapse of three years, the scheme has struggled to put a measly 500 buses on the roads, triggering an acute crunch of buses.
Non-availability of safe and secure public transport has also put commuters at risk. It is pertinent to mention that the December 16 gang-rape victim had boarded a private chartered bus on the fateful night.
At present, the city has a little over 5,000 buses. As per the Supreme Court’s order of 2001, Delhi required 11,000 buses to meet the city’s public transport needs. However, even after 12 years, the Government failed to achieve the number. Nearly 3,800 blueline buses were plying in the city before they were took off the road in phased manner following the court order. “The city, as per the 2001 SC order, required 11,000 buses — including the DTC and Delhi Transit run cluster buses. The total fleet, after phasing out the old buses is 5,450 out of which 5,000 buses are put into operation per day,” said a DTC official.
For the scheme to take off, the agency which manages the scheme, Delhi Integrated Multi Modal Transit System (DIMTS) had divided the 650 bus routes in the city under 17 clusters. Of these, only the routes under the first five clusters are operational and DIMTS is yet to float tenders for the rest of the 12 clusters. This has caused inordinate delays for the orange-coloured Delhi Transit buses to hit roads. The scheme with its crawling pace has struggled to add a meager 500 buses to the bus network of the city, which was set for a major expansion way back in 2010.
The scheme, which was planned as a replacement to the ‘killer blueline’ buses, has failed to deliver on its target. “lack of expertise is the major reason for the failure of the scheme causing huge losses to the Government. It was decided before the scheme took off that it will be operated by the corporate groups or private societies. However, when the tenders started to be floated in 2011, only few companies came forward and those who took interest in operating buses had limited experience in bus operations,” said a Delhi Government official.
The scheme after caught in multiple delays was launched with much fanfare in 2011 and the government had promised that 1,000 buses would ply under the cluster scheme by December 2012. Senior officials said that lack of parking space for private buses that would operate under the cluster schemes and financial losses are responsible for causing delays in buses hitting the roads. “The buses under cluster scheme are facing hassles due to unavailability of parking space. As in when the depots are available for parking the buses, more buses can be brought in,” said the official. However, a DTC official said that the Kajhawala, Sunehri and Kushak Nullah depots have already been allotted to the cluster buses.
The much ambitious scheme was inaugurated with multiple facilities on board such as the passenger information system (PIS), global positioning system (GPS), temperature reader, clock, electronic display board and CCTV cameras and electronic ticketing machines (ETMs).