Cluster-2 of private stage carriage buses was launched by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit from Delhi Secretariat on Monday with 50 non-airconditioned buses being flagged off.
The first cluster of this service was launched in May this year.
The flag-off also marked another major stride in Delhi adopting the public-private partnership model for strengthening the public transport bus fleet under the State-owned Delhi Transport Corporation. While the new orange coloured buses under the ‘Cluster' scheme are owned by private players, they are being paid on a per kilometre basis by the DTC, which also deploys its drivers and conductors to ensure that there is no competition for the revenue stream.
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Ms. Dikshit expressed hope that the orange buses under Cluster-2 will supplement the existing public transport system apart from providing comfortable service to commuters at prescribed rates.
She said private stage carriage buses under Cluster-2 would have a number of new features which would be liked by the passengers.
To begin with, a total of 119 buses will operate in Cluster-2, starting with the Teevra Mudrika (in both directions) from Punjabi Bagh crossing on Ring Road. The remaining buses will be introduced in a time-bound manner.
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The concessionaire for Cluster-2 is AB Grain Spirits Private Limited and it would be providing the buses to the DTC for operation. The concessionaire would also be required to arrange for parking and maintenance of the vehicles.
The new buses have been equipped with Global Positioning System for real-time monitoring of their location and speed. They would also possess electronic ticketing machines that would send real-time ticketing information to the backend.
The buses also have an internal voice announcement system and display board to inform passengers about the approaching bus stop. Further, they possess in-built speed governors to regulate their speed.
Speaking at their launch, Delhi Transport Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely said these buses were a modified version of the standard floor buses with entry plus two steps instead of the three steps that was part of the earlier design. “These buses comply with the urban bus specifications set by the Union Government,” he added.
It has been decided that these buses would operate on seven different routes from the Kanjhawala Bus Depot.
The Minister further said that at present 100 buses under Cluster-1 are operational on Delhi roads. With an operational efficiency of 99.5 per cent and by carrying more than 1,000 passengers per day per bus, the cluster scheme has proved to be a major success and has been able to meet its purpose of providing safe, reliable and comfortable travel to people of Delhi.
The gathering was also told that Delhi Integrated Multi-Model Transit System (DIMTS) Ltd. will continue to monitor the next cluster too on behalf of the Delhi Government.