The Delhi government has approved the procurement of 1,000 DTC buses which was stuck for the last six years. The procurement of buses will also mean a revival of the DTC, which has not had a single new bus to its fleet since 2010.
"This will revamp the entire mechanism for the maintenance of the buses. The decision was approved in a late night meeting on Tuesday. The decision will now be put in front of the next cabinet for the approval," said a senior government official.
Tenders for the long-pending 1,000 DTC buses have been floated several times over the past two years. However, there has been no outcome each time.
"The move will also aim at re-orienting the entire structure of the DTC buses," added the official.
The number of buses in the DTC fleet is 4,020, out of which about 400 are unavailable on average every day due to breakdowns. The Delhi Integrated Multi-Model Transit System (DIMTS) runs 1,612 buses under the cluster bus services.
The total number of buses — which ferry more than 32 lakh passengers every day — is grossly inadequate compared to the estimated need, which is about 10,000 to 11,000 buses.
The AAP government in 2015 had promised to add 10,000 buses to the DTC fleet and 736 cluster buses. However, while no new DTC buses have been procured, only 215 cluster buses were added.
In need
DTC has not added any new bus in its fleet since 2013. This move will help DTC deal with the shortage of buses.
However, trained maintenance workers are also needed for running the dept.
