NEW DELHI: The red buses on the city’s roads take the commuters for a ride on a daily basis—for, they pause more than they ply. The fleet of air-conditioned (AC) buses has turned out to be the proverbial white elephant for the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) which is already in the red.
The Delhi government shunted out killer Blueline buses and gradually started phasing out an old fleet of DTC buses to replace them with AC and ordinary low-floor buses ahead of the 2010 Commonwealth Games. But shockingly, on an average, 175 of the total 1,275 red AC buses that carry a price tag of a whopping `67 lakh per bus break down every day. And the administration spends `20 lakh per day for maintenance of these red buses alone.
Inquiries reveal that the air-conditioning system of the buses is not able to match the load. In 100 such buses, the system has stopped functioning. So, the government instead of maintaining a good fleet of red buses is planning to give up on acquiring new ones. Also, there are only two manufacturers in the country which supply these buses and they have started dictating their terms.
Such frequent incidents of breakdown cause traffic jams during peak hours. “The commuters are forced to face traffic jams every day during peak hours because of breakdown of low-floor buses in the middle of the road. The worst part is that we cannot tow away these buses to ease traffic jam,” Special Commissioner of Police Traffic Muktesh Chander told The Sunday Standard.
Once they break down, these buses have to be repaired on the spot. “They cannot be moved a single inch as all of their wheels get jammed and locked,” said Chander, adding that it is a problem the traffic police faces on a daily basis.
The DTC had purchased 1,250 AC buses in 2010 for almost `700 crore. Though it had promised comfortable rides, the buses have failed to deliver.
The corporation that had again floated a tender to procure around 300 AC buses has dropped the plans to buy them as “the technology is still in nascent stage”.
Absence of AC: During summer, the AC systems of most of the buses become ineffective. Since these buses cannot take load while navigating flyovers, drivers are forced to switch off the AC system. There are faults in the technology and the manufacturers are reportedly working on it.
DTC spokesperson R S Minhas said, “The CNG technology in India is still in early stages and the manufacturers are updating their technologies every time. The engine temperature of these buses is much higher than the diesel-run buses.”
According to him, around 550 buses break down every day, of which 350 are low-floor buses, including AC buses, and 200 are standard ones.
During Congress’s regime the buses were introduced and its leader Arvinder Singh Lovely said, “It’s the duty of the manufacturers to look into the technical issues. The Congress government introduced these buses for eco-friendly and people-friendly transport.”
Depleting fleet: More than 46 lakh people use buses every day in Delhi. “The city, as per the 2001 Supreme Court order, required 11,000 buses, including DTC and Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS)-run cluster ones. But till now around 6,000 buses have been made available,” said Minhas.
Till now, DTC has been able to put 5,216 buses on roads which have got gradually reduced to 4,937 buses and DIMTS has around 1,200 buses. However, these numbers are woefully short for the city.
In the cluster bus system, a private operator has to buy a minimum of 200 buses and hand them over to DIMTS to run them. Now, DIMTS is unable to roll out new buses due to lack of parking space.
There are 4,937 buses run by DTC of which 1,275 are air-conditioned, 2,506 are low-floor non-AC buses and 1,156 buses are standard buses, which are condemned, but still plying on city roads.
The corporation has floated global tenders but this time to buy semi low-floor buses after getting green signal from Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung when Finance Minister Arun Jaitley sanctioned funds to procure 1,380 buses. “We decided to procure semi-low floor buses as the low-floor buses cannot ply on outer areas where the conditions of the roads are bad,” said Minhas.
Expensive transport: An AC bus cost the city administration `67 lakh and a non-AC bus `41 lakh. The administration spends `20 lakh per day to maintain low-floor AC buses and `41 lakh for non-AC buses. These buses are maintained and repaired by the manufacturers. “Currently, we are spending `8 per km on maintenance of low-floor buses,” said Minhas.
The DTC is running 1,850 low-floor non-AC buses of Tata Marcopolo and 656 of Ashok Leyland. It is running 838 AC buses of Tata and 437 of Ashok Leyland. The corporation has provided space for the manufacturers at 29 bus depots, of the 44, to carry out maintenance. Their engineers at these depots rush to the places where the buses break down.
Why low-floor bus? After hundreds of fatal accidents in the capital involving the errant Blueline buses, people wanted to ban the ‘killer’ vehicles. This forced the Delhi government to phase out Blueline buses which were operating since 1992.
In the meantime, the Delhi government wanted to make the DTC buses disabled-friendly. In collaboration with NGO Samarthya, the then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit flagged off six low-floor buses on an experimental basis in 2005. After getting positive feedbacks and keeping in view the Commonwealth Games, the government decided to replace the fleet with low-floor buses.
