Following the order of Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) has started vacating seven-year-old and 10-year-old buses and till now around 30 buses have been scrapped by the corporation. Most of them were low floor buses and had outlived the registration years as mandated by the Law.

Currently, in Delhi there are around 5500 buses, out of which only 3781 buses comes under DTC out of this also, a total of 30 buses have been scrapped for crossing the age limit. According, to sources, the city needs a fleet of 11000 to cater the need of public but sadly, Delhi got new buses last in the year 2010-11 during the congress government after that none have been procured by the Delhi Government.

 “In one side the scrapping of the old vehicle is good but on the another side it is a troublesome for the commuters as the buses will be start scrapping the frequency of the buses will decrease due to reduction of the buses. If this will continue then the DTC will be left with zero buses in the coming five years,” said a government official who wished to be anonymous.

According to the data shared, a total of 159 buses were procured in the year 2007-08, total 491 buses in 2008-09 under DTC. Large numbers of buses were purchased in the year 2009-10 and 2010-11, i.e, 1254 and 1845. After a gap of one year, a total of 32 buses in the year 201-13.

The official further added that, “it is good that the transport department is going to purchase around 3000 buses (Low-Floor buses-1000, standard buses with mechanical lifts-1000 and electric buses - 1000) which has been recently approved by the government. But, the proposals will bore fruit only when it will come out of the papers. If the new buses will not arrive soon by 2019, the commuters especially bus users will face huge problem waiting for the bus in the bus stands.”

The frequency of the arrival a bus is 15 minutes during the peak hour and the daily ridership of DTC and Cluster bus is nearly 30 lakh.