After having failed to identify a company for procurement of buses on two previous occasions, the Delhi Transport Corporation once again issued a request of proposal on Monday inviting bus manufacturers to provide around 1,400 buses to replace the fleet of standard-floor buses.
While the entire fleet of the standard-floor buses has outlived its utility, the DTC this time has issued a global tender to procure 1,380 semi-floor non-AC buses. The public transporter had issued a global tender earlier this year for 1,725 buses, including 1,380 semi-floor non-AC buses and 345 low-floor AC buses.
However, the DTC failed to identify a provider, sources said, as the bidders quoted higher maintenance cost vis-a-vis what the management is paying to Tata and Ashok Leyland as maintenance for the low-floor buses procured ahead of the Commonwealth Games 2010. The DTC had floated a global tender earlier this year after a previous request for proposal to procure buses specifically from Indian manufacturers failed to elicit any response, sources said.
The DTC officials, however, said they were confident of procuring buses this time around. “The specifications have been changed this time a bit. The bid has been invited for 1,380 semi-low floor non-AC buses like the ones operating under the cluster scheme.
The semi-low floor buses are being procured to replace the standard-floor buses, which largely cater to the rural and outer Delhi areas. The semi-floor buses are more suited for these areas as the road condition in such pockets is not good,” said DTC spokesperson R.S. Minhas.
Around 1,200 buses out of the existing fleet of 5,000 DTC buses are standard floor, while the rest are low-floor buses procured ahead of the Commonwealth Games. While around 600 standard-floor buses have been phased out over the last two years, the rest continue to ply on city roads as the public transporter has failed to procure new buses despite floating tender on two occasions in the past.
