To do away with plying of empty buses behind others on the same route and thereby curtail revenue loss, the Delhi Government is undertaking a major rationalisation of routes under which 303 bus routes have been scrapped and only a total of 488 routes will remain, Delhi Transport Minister Ramakant Goswami said on Friday.
The Minister said the rationalisation of routes has been done to cut down on the financial losses and to release the extra buses. “Through this process we will be able to release about 200 buses for more optimal use.”
Pointing out that the Delhi Transport Corporation and the Orange Cluster Scheme buses were running in close proximity of each other on certain routes, he said the exercise was undertaken to improve the operations and ensure a time-lag in the plying of two buses on the same route so that the passengers could get an assured and time-bound service.
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“Earlier there were 657 routes and then the DTC had added another 134 to take the number to 791. These routes were subjected to intense scrutiny and thereafter out of them 254 were found okay, 169 were slightly modified while the remaining 234 routes were merged with the other routes. So now when have a total of 488 routes in operation.”
Mr. Goswami said the government will soon get adequate number of buses on all these routes. He said as of now DTC has about 3,500 low-floor and 1,800 standard chassis buses, while about 400 cluster scheme buses are also in operation. So in all there are about 5,800 buses that will be distributed equitably on the routes as per the passenger demand.
As for the erstwhile Blueline buses, he said as per High Court orders they will be rehabilitated on 97 routes. However, these bus owners will now only run 24 and 32-seater vehicles.
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