It may well be end of DTC commuters' woes; 2,500 new low-floor CNG buses coming by February 2010
It may well be end of DTC commuters' woes; 2,500 new low-floor CNG buses coming by February 2010
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Public transport in the city is going to be safe and comfortable, soon.
The Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) will be adding 2,500 more low-floor CNG buses to its existing fleet by February 2010. The delivery of new buses will start next month with 27 buses joining the DTC bandwagon.
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The immediate beneficiary will be those travelling towards Noida as the first batch of buses will be put on that route. "We had planned it for long but because of the limited number of low-floor buses, they were plying on city routes only," said a senior DTC official, requesting anonymity.
He also revealed that the corporation has asked the suppliers Tata Motors and Ashok Leylandu00a0to deliver the air-conditioned buses early as it is summer time.
"Twenty-seven buses will be delivered in July. The next delivery order will be of 180 buses. We hope that the full order will be delivered by February 2010," he said.
The newly appointed DTC Managing Director Naresh Kumar also confirmed that the delivery of buses will start soon. "I won't commit any particular date but very soon new buses will join our fleet." Kumar, however, added that all buses will be delivered by February 2010.
DTC officials told MiD DAY that depots where the new buses will be parked are being decked up. "The first delivery will go to Noida and Ambedkar Nagar depot and later on will be distributed among other depots, including two depots in Dwarka," they said.
While 60 per cent of the buses are to be delivered by Tata Motors remaining 40 per cent buses will be manufactured by Ashok Leyland. The maintenance of buses will be done by manufacturers as per the agreement.u00a0
The corporation placed the order for buses last year. The order is part of the DTC's efforts with the Delhi Integrated Multi Modal Transit System to provide hi-tech bus service ahead of Commonwealth Games next year.
The buses will have state-of-the-art passenger information system and global positioning system to facilitate commuters. While the online bus tracking system for a few routes has already been started, the commuters will also be able to send and receive the bus schedule on mobile in a few months.u00a0
The DTC currently has 3,500 buses out of which the officials say 1,200 buses are to be phased out by March next year. Currently, there is a huge shortage of buses in the city as the private Blueline buses are decreasing by the day. Fresh permits are also not being given by the government and so far the transport department has also been unsuccessful in finalizing the operator for the newly formed clusters to replace the Blueline buses.
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