The Delhi Government on Tuesday announced a new timeline for the complete phase out of Blueline buses from the city roads. As per this plan, 823 buses would go off the roads on Wednesday, another 389 buses by the end of December and the remaining 840 would be taken off the roads in January 2011.
Delhi Transport Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely said the Government has decided not to seek an extension of the permits for these Blueline buses. He said the Delhi Transport Corporation, which has about 6300 buses in its fleet right now, is fully capable of meeting the needs of Delhi’s commuters and thus all the remaining 2,052 Blueline buses would be phased out by January end. The announcement comes a day before a case pertaining to Blueline buses comes up for hearing in the Delhi High Court.
The Minister said the decision to phase out the Blueline buses was not based only on their involvement in a large number of accidents, which have seen a marked decline ever since the phase out began. ``It has also a lot to do with the comfort of the commuters, the security and safety of the women and the manner in which the staff interact with the commuters. We want the best possible service for the people and this is just a step in the direction.’’
He also recalled that the removal of Blueline buses from New Delhi Municipal Council areas was stepped up during the Commonwealth Games to improve on the traffic situation and ensure orderly movement of vehicles. Thereafter, the Government decided not to renew the permits of the 700 Blueline buses plying on this route and it had a beneficial impact on the traffic flow.
``The quality of public transport is also important to us because only that would encourage people to leave their private vehicles and travel by city buses. The Airport Express service has been launched with air-conditioned buses. And the cluster scheme has also been introduced to bring in more buses. The tenders for the first five clusters have been floated and the buses would come in within six months,’’ Mr. Lovely said.
He said while the phasing out of Blueline buses is likely to create some hardships for the commuters for a few days, ``efforts are being made to minimise this inconvenience. The DTC has been directed to rationalise its time-table and increase the length of its routes.
The Corporation has also recruited 2,195 drivers and they would start working on the buses in the month of January. This, he said, would enable DTC to operate its buses on more shifts and for longer hours.
The rural transport vehicles (RTVs), that mostly operate as Metro feeder services, would also be given extended routes to operate on.
Mr Lovely said transport being one of the key services along with health and education, the Government wants to really improve it. ``This is just the beginning. At a later stage, we would also improve upon the Metro feeder bus service.’’
