Pulled up by the Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) for having done “too little” to augment the city’s public transport, the Delhi government on Friday announced that 2,000 new CNG buses would be rolled out in the next one year.
The plan for the procurement of standard non-AC buses — 1,000 each for Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and Cluster Scheme — has been finalised by the Transport Department, an official statement issued by the Transport Minister, Kailash Gahlot, read.
“For the procurement of 1,000 cluster buses, the Notice Inviting Tender is likely to be issued by November 30, and the department has been directed to complete the rollout of these buses within 10 months,” read the statement.
The DTC has already published the expression of interest for appointment of a bid management consultant.
Pulled up by the EPCA
“Following the appointment of bid management consultant, the tender for procurement of 1,000 DTC buses will be issued. The target is to roll out these buses within a year,” the statement added.
Earlier during the day, EPCA chairman Bhure Lal, in a letter to Mr. Gahlot, had stated that the Delhi government had “adequate land to park up to 2,000 buses” and claimed that “no buses have been procured yet”.
The EPCA had also pitched for multi-level parking for better utilisation of land in DTC terminals, Mr. Lal said.
“But we are finding it difficult to identify what actions have been taken by your [AAP] government to speed up the procurement of buses for which parking space is available,” the EPCA chief said, stressing the need to avoid “finger-pointing”.
He also made it clear that the EPCA had not directed the Delhi government to enforce the odd-even scheme, and added that it was not in favour of any exceptions.
Mr. Gahlot, in his letter to Mr. Lal on Wednesday, had said that the EPCA “kept quiet” over obligations of the NCR cities to combat pollution while the Delhi government was criticised for “flip-flopping” over the odd-even car rationing scheme.
