The Delhi Cabinet on Monday paved the way for increasing the number of buses plying under the cluster scheme in Delhi to 3,000 by permitting the implementation of four new clusters.
Following the Cabinet meeting, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said her Government has been trying hard to augment the fleet of public transport buses in Delhi.
Now that Blueline buses have been completely phased out, she said, the Government is working on augmenting the fleet of the cluster buses under which 247 buses are plying at present.
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The Chief Minister said after considerable hearings in the matter, the Supreme Court had spelt out the requirement of public transport buses in Delhi. She said the total requirement of public transport buses stood at 11,000 and the Government was keen on ensuring that this target was met.
It has been decided that 60 per cent of these buses would operate under the cluster scheme while 40 per cent of the fleet would be of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC).
Noting that it was as a replacement to the Blue Line bus service that the Transport Department had introduced the cluster bus services, Ms. Dikshit said the agreements in respect of five out of the 17 identified clusters have already been signed. The buses under Clusters 4 and 5 clusters are now operating partially.
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And now by giving the nod for implementation of cluster buses under Clusters 6, 7, 8 and 9, the Delhi Government has eased the introduction of more buses under the scheme.
With the implementation of these clusters, the number of cluster buses will go up to 3,000. In addition to this, the DTC is already plying 5,775 buses.
As for the new clusters, it has been spelt out that under Cluster 6 as many as 279 buses will be added; under Cluster 7 there will be 358; Cluster 8 will see 497 more buses coming in and under Cluster 9 a total of 418 buses will be added.
The Transport Department has in the meantime also taken steps to increase the parking space for more cluster buses. While space for the parking of 2,000 buses is being prepared, Ms. Dikshit on Monday instructed the Department to expedite the process so that more cluster buses could be introduced at the earliest.