New Delhi:
The state cabinet on Monday gave its approval to a proposal to
allow corporates operating buses on prescribed route clusters.
The proposal is to provide value added services like AC buses
and sitting-only buses for which, the operator would be free to
fix fares on his own. There would however, be a ceiling of 20%
trips per cluster and 30% trips per route where these services
can be provided.
Corporatisation was proposed more than a year ago as a solution
to the rampaging Bluelines, and the cluster system was mooted
so that a bunch of routes close to each other, would be clubbed
under one cluster where a single operator would run his buses,
minimising the possibility of competition. As per the long-term
proposal, buses in the city would run on private and state ownership
at a 40:60 ratio.
In a candid confession, the cabinet note clearly said that only
331 of the existing 657 scheduled routes in the city are being
served at present. DIMTS has already divided the 657 routes into
17 clusters to ensure that no route is left out just because it
is ''not profitable''. A unified time-table of the 32 routes in
cluster 1 has already been drawn up. Bids have been invited for
the first cluster and ten bids have been sent for further evaluation.
In all buses apart from those with value addition, the state
government would have the last say in the matter of fares and
gets to retain the fares while the service provider is given a
pre-decided lump sum amount for running the service. There would
also be a system of incentives and disincentives for commitment
to quality and reliability of service.
The cabinet also gave its nod to a provision for parking space
for buses of private operator for which they would need to pay
Rs 12,000 per bus per year. For this, permission was given for
the covering of drains for the development of bus depots and Rs
500 crore was approved as the first phase of budgetary allocation
for the project.
The drains that are under consideration for covering, are, Janakpuri
Drain, Barapullah Drain, Lodhi Road Drain, Shahdara Industrial
Area Drain and Rohini Drain. DIMTS will establish an operation
control centre to manage the private bus system effectively and
to monitor things like adherence to speed limit, stopping at specified
stops, regularity of trips.
