The Delhi government has constituted a committee to look into the issues facing the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and to make recommendations for operational uniformity with partly private cluster model of buses.
The committee, constituted by Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot, will be headed by Delhi Transport Commissioner Ashish Kundra and will also have the DTC MD as its member.
According to officials, the mandate of the committee is to make recommendations so as to bring uniformity in the functioning of DTC and DIMTS (Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System) with regard to the buses operating under the cluster model as well as suggest measures to improve safety and comfort level of the commuters.
The committee has also been directed to examine ways and means to make the operations of DTC technologically advanced so as to reduce human intervention wherever needed.
The other responsibilities of the committee would entail suggesting measures for recruitment of officials at different levels who may be in a position to take the DTC to new heights, according to officials.
The minister has stressed that the induction of electric buses on a large scale would require adoption of tech savvy operations, they said.
Of the 7,200 buses currently plying on the city roads, DTC runs 3,900 buses and the cluster runs 3,300. There are 150 electric buses of DTC that will be added by next month to its fleet. At the same time, 2,600 buses are going to be retired in the next two years.
According to a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report tabled in the Assembly on Tuesday, the DTC has negative net worth and contributed 99.74 per cent of the loss incurred by state public sector enterprises in the national capital during 2019-20.
The Delhi Cabinet last month had given a nod to procuring 1,950 buses and issuing fresh tenders for 4,880 more, taking the fleet to about 12,000 on city roads by December 2024. Of the 1,950 buses to be procured, 450 will be low-floor AC CNG buses fully BS VI compliant. As many as 113 of them will arrive between August 2022 and January 2023 and 337 will arrive between February 2023 and March 2023, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said.
The 450 CNG buses are in lieu of the cluster buses which will retire by October 10 this year, the officials said.
-With PTI Input
