The Hindu : Unified Time Table for city buses from April 15

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 03, 2003

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Unified Time Table for city buses from April 15

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI APRIL 2. After a lapse of almost a decade, Delhi roads will once again witness some kind of semblance and discipline in the running of the public transport system. The maddening rat race among the private bus operators to outdo each other and pick up the maximum number of passengers, which often led to accidents, is expected to come to an end from April 15 when the much awaited Unified Time Table for city stage carriages comes into effect.

The nearly 6,500 DTC and private buses will follow a fixed schedule for running their fleet and those who jump the queue would be challaned by the vigilant staff of the DTC which will be deployed to keep a check on unscrupulous elements trying to hijack the system. The Unified Time Table for stage carriage buses on city routes will be implemented from April 15, the Delhi Transport Minister, Ajay Maken, announced here today. The 2,500 strong DTC CNG fleet and 4,000-odd private operators buses would follow the time table which is another step towards improvement of the public transport system and also towards enforcing traffic discipline.

Being implemented under the Bhagidari concept, the new Unified Time Table has the backing of the transporters and the Government. With the buses adhering to the new schedule, the race among the private operators would come to an end and is expected to make driving a much pleasant experience for Delhiites. Beginning April 15, the surplus DTC staff would be deployed at important bus depots and terminals to record the arrival and departure timings of the buses, both DTC and private, and provide valuable inputs to the State Transport Authority. Any violations would invite penal action including challan.

In addition to this, all the bus terminals in the Capital would have display boards giving details about the Unified Time Table. The terminals would also have complaint books placed there in order to enable the commuters to lodge their complaint against the non-compliance of the timetable by any of the bus operators. Apart from this, all the private bus operators had been asked to display the timetable of their routes at the entrance of the buses for the benefit of the commuters. Mr. Maken said that a joint committee comprising of bus operators and STA officials had prepared the timetable after a lot of effort and scrutiny. The views of the transporters had been kept in mind while preparing it.

The Transport Minister said the private stage carriage permit holders whose buses are plying on non-rationalised routs have been given the opportunity to file applications on prescribed forms to opt to merge with rationalised routes that are proximate to their existing routes. The operators have been given the option of shifting to rationalised routes by submitting their applications before April 9. At the same time, Mr. Maken said the RTVs would continue to ply as feeder route buses and permits had been issued to them for around 12 to 14 km in the local area. Their operation on the long routes is not on the agenda and their main purpose would be to act as feeder services.

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