Delhi to buy 1,900 buses, including 500 midi buses for public transport

New Delhi: Facing huge shortage of buses, the Delhi government has decided to buy around 1,900 such vehicle, including 50O midies, in order to improve the bus service in the national capital.

The Aam Aadmi Party government has prepared a proposal, which favours to buy 1,380 semi-low-floor buses and 500 midi buses, which would be added to the Delhi Transport Corporation's fleet, and the proposal is likely to be tabled in the next cabinet meeting.

Delhiites have been facing difficulties in commuting due to shortage of buses in the capital. The DTC and Delhi Integrated Multi-Model Transit System (DIMTS) are presently operating around 4,700 buses and 1,300 cluster buses (orange) respectively.

"There is huge shortage of buses in the capital. In view of this, government has prepared a proposal to buy 1,880 buses out of which, 1,380 are semi-low-floor buses and 500 are midi buses," said a senior official. A midibus is a single-decker minibuses which are generally larger than a traditional minibus but smaller than a full-size single decker bus.

The official said that there are several routes, especially in rural areas, where commuters have to wait several hours for buses, adding that most new buses will be plied on such routes. This is for the first time that DTC would be adding midi buses to its fleet and if we compare the cost of midi buses to that of normal buses, the difference is not much. The number of seats is also almost same as smaller buses have 28-30 seats, the official said.

"We hope that after buying 1,880 buses, including 500 midi buses, people using bus service don't have to face problem while commuting across the city," he added.

DTC has been looking to buy 1,380 semi-low buses for over one and a half years now. Earlier, it was looking to buy low-floor buses which were then changed to semi-low-floor buses after there was lack of response from the manufacturers.

Despite various changes being made in the tender conditions, including maintenance parameters, DTC had not been successful in closing a contract in past.

Sources in the DTC said that it has been decided that the corporation will do maintenance of new buses against the earlier proposal of manufacturers taking care of the same.