In view of Delhi Government’s decision to restrict plying of vehicles, Transport Minister Gopal Rai on Saturday said that the public transport system would be strengthened by introducing more buses and frequency of Metro trains to accommodate the rush. Rai said the DMRC and Delhi Traffic Police will be approached in this regard and a strategy worked out.
“I have called a meeting with officials from Transport Department, Public Works Department (PWD), Delhi Traffic Police and environment department on how to execute the government’s decision,” Rai said.
A senior Government official said that Transport Department does not have sufficient staff to execute the new decision on its own and it will approach Traffic Police for cooperation with the Government.
Sources in DTC said that it is difficult for the State-owned bus authority to include more buses in its fleet. “DTC has been trying to buy around 2,000 new buses for almost two years. We are still trying to buy new buses despite the fact that we recently floated global tenders,” they said.
At present, we have a fleet of 4,500 buses, including 1,275 AC-floor buses and 2,500 non-AC floor buses, which is not sufficient to accomodate the increasing numbers of passengers.