As the second instalment of the odd-even vehicle rationing policy inches closer, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government is initiating an overhaul of the Capital’s road and transport infrastructure in addition to changing the way its citizens take the bus.
Apart from dedicated bus lanes —which will be in place before odd-even 2.0 kicks off on April 15 and will remain in force till April 30 — a major highlight of the overhaul will be the opening up of Delhi’s transportation sector to private apps offering bus aggregation services.
This will be done through a more liberalised legal framework and has become necessary, say government officials, due to two reasons.
Firstly, the auto and taxi unions have demanded that all Ola and Uber cabs be equipped with fare metres to level the playing field. They have threatened to throw a spanner in the second phase of the odd-even scheme if this is not done.
Secondly, the government has realised that the Delhi Transport Corporation’s inadequate fleet of buses — it has a little over 5,000 buses of which 1,500 are cluster buses — and the infrastructural limitations of the Metro will be overburdened when the scheme kicks in.
Last time, the commuters turned to app-based cabs in a big way, but compounding the problem for commuters and the government this time around is the non-availability of app-based cabs due to a Delhi High Court directive.
“As per directions of the Delhi High Court, the government had been directed not to take any coercive action against cabs being operated by Uber and Ola till the end of March by which date these companies are supposed to phase out diesel-run vehicles and operate only CNG cars,” said an official.
“The deadline is approaching fast and is expected to significantly reduce the number of cabs available to commuters during the second phase of odd-even, which could trigger a lot of distress for citizens till April 30 and have a negative impact on the success of the scheme,” the official added.
During the trial phase of the odd-even scheme between January 1 and January 15, the government had added 6,000 buses to the DTC by culling them from private schools, which were closed for winter vacation.
However, there were various “issues” experienced by the Transport Department during the process with close to 300 schools choosing “not to cooperate” with the government by withholding the buses.
Even as the government ran close to 10,000 buses to supplement services during the trial phase, most ran empty as commuters preferred to travel in vehicles provided by cab aggregators.
“Private cabs were evidently the preferred choice for commuters. Commuters were willing to be overcharged instead of choosing to travel on public buses,” said another official.
As March 31 approaches, private cab operators are racing against time to provide details of the number of diesel-run cabs phased out and being replaced by CNG-run ones, which needs to be submitted by the Aam Aadmi Party government to the Delhi High Court before the end of the month.
“Moreover, the government wants to promote the use of public buses, which will later be linked to a fleet of premium buses that we plan to operate by the end of 2016,” said an official.
Proposed to be run on exclusive and dedicated bus lanes on arterial stretches, the government is in favour of partnering with the operators of app-based bus services as per the existing norms of the cluster scheme.
While the government is waiting for the Delhi High Court’s decision on the future of app-based cab services, a proposal to relax permit conditions for the operators of buses has been put up to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for his nod, which is likely to be procured by early next week.
