10 May,2010 08:44 AM IST | | Surender Sharma
Metro commuters have a reason to smile. Soon, Delhi Metro's much awaited air-conditioned feeder buses will ply on 20 routes, promising a comfortable ride this summer.u00a0
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) is yet to finalise the contractor, though routes have already been charted out.
"We are in the final stage of selecting the operator. It's difficult to set a time frame as of now, but we are expecting to flag off the operation pretty soon," said Anuj Dayal, spokesperson, DMRC.
For the project, an Indo-Asian auto giant, Swaraj Mazda is building as many as 300 buses. A 26-seater bus will cost around Rs 19.8 lakh and will have features like pneumatic air suspension for more comfort, wide doors between 800 to 1,000 mm for better traffic movement and semi-low floor design.
"We had started a trial bus service on Shastri Park- Vasundhra Enclave route foru00a0 a few months. The successful trial run helped us chalk out the bus routes and other operational modalities," said an operation's department official.
The official said, it will be mandatory for the bus operator to run buses on the schedule prepared by the Delhi Metro and also to maintain a log of the operations between 8 am to 8 pm. "However, the period of two hours in the morning between 6 am to 8 am and in the evening from 8 pm to 10 pm, the operator will decide on his own
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