Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) has scrapped a total number of 40 standard floor CNG buses from its fleet. These are the buses that have completed the scrapping norms and had outlived the registration years as mandated by the Law. Currently, in Delhi there are around 5,671 buses, out of which 3,881 buses comes under DTC and the remaining 1,789 buses run under the cluster scheme.
DTC buses are operational on a 557 routes including 18 National Capital Region (NCR) routes carrying about 31 lakh passengers per day.
The corporation has started scrapping, disposal and deletion of these buses after the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) asked all the concerned authorities to take strict action against the age old vehicles to control air pollution in the national Capital. “Till now, about 40 numbers of buses have been scrapped and these buses were procured last in 2010-11 during the tenure of Sheila Dikshit mostly standard floor buses procured after that none have been procured by Delhi Government,” said a transport official.
Of the total 40 scrapped standard Floor CNG buses, 39 were Tata-CNG and one is LLV CNG. As per the officials, these scrapped buses will be dismantled and recycled in eco friendly manner by the enforcement team of transport department.
The Delhi Transport Department has recently signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA), recently with M/S Mahindra MSTC limited for scrapping of condemned/confiscated/ impounded/ accidental vehicles for their dismantling/ recycling/ in environment friendly manner, said the official.
“In one side the scrapping of the old vehicle is good but the question is the when the new buses will be added to the fleet of DTC. The commuters are the one who faces problems as the scrapping procedure starts, the frequency of the buses decreases due to reduction of the buses. Moreover, due to the lack of buses, the people are more attracting towards the metro trains. But, 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 purchased in the year 2010-13.
However, this year the Delhi government has approved the transport department’s proposal to procure 4000 new buses. However, only 1000 buses will be bught under DTC scheme and the remaining 3000 (Low-Floor buses-1000, standard buses with mechanical lifts-1000 and electric buses - 1000) will be inducted under cluster bus scheme. These buses are expected to be rolled out on the roads in the financial year 2019-20 in different phases.
“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,” added the official.
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.
