Delhi Government rolls out 100 GPS-enabled buses

Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel and transport minister Satyendar Jain flag off 100 new buses in New Delhi on Sunday. (Photo: Asian Age)

The Delhi government on Sunday rolled out 100 GPS-enabled buses with onboard e-ticketing facility. In the next phase, the Delhi government will be introducing an additional fleet of 800 buses, of which 431 buses will be air conditioned.

The new buses were flagged off at a special function in Delhi Assembly, presided over by Speaker Ram Niwas Goel.

Three thousand new buses will be introduced by the end of the current fiscal year, Delhi transport minister Satyendar Jain said. The government has a plan outlay of '325 crore for purchase of buses and development of bus terminals.

“We aim to ramp up the conductivity and frequency of bus services by integrating metro and bus services,” Mr Jain said. According to him, the new buses will provide feeder bus service on Metro routes.

The new buses will be largely catering to north, east and west Delhi on 8 additional cluster routes.

These buses will provide crucial connectivity to well-known hospitals, Metro stations and traffic interchange hubs at ISBTs like Kashmere Gate, Anand Vihar and Sarai Kale Khan terminals, according to the government.

The bus routes will terminate at Mori Gate Terminal, Kamla Market, Ambedkar Nagar Terminal, Old Delhi Railway Station, Mayur Vihar Phase-III Terminal, Inderpuri JJ Colony, Mori Gate Terminal and Shivaji Stadium Terminal.

The state-of-the-art GPS system and onboard electronic ticketing are the new-age features in cluster buses. Besides conforming to the urban bus specifications and safety tests, the 41-seater buses are fitted with “anti-vandalism” seats.

With the induction of these 100 buses, the cluster fleet strength has risen to 1,590 buses. The Delhi Transport Corporation has a fleet of 4,461 buses, which include 3,781 low-floor buses and 680 standard-floor buses. Since 2013, the DTC had three failed tenders to procure buses.