Delhi City News Archives

Starting Tuesday, low floor buses with automatic transmission, pneumatic doors and air suspension will finally become a reality on the Capital's roads.

The first lot of a dozen buses will be flagged off by the chief minister from India Gate lawns on Tuesday afternoon. Of these, 10 buses will run on route 500 - from Shivaji Stadium to Saket - while two other buses will be used for training purposes. The on-road fleet will run at a frequency of 16-20 minutes. According to senior Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) officials, the new fleet will run on the existing fare structure to start with.

In the next two months, the next lot of buses will be extended to other routes - Mudrika and route 40 from Inderpuri to Lajpat nagar are being considered.

The entire lot of 525 new buses is scheduled to hit the road by July 2008 and is expected to considerably augment the Capital's bus-based public transport.

The first air conditioned bus is also arriving on Tuesday. Once the prototype gets the final nod, the first lot of air conditioned buses will hit the road by this month end, and the entire air conditioned fleet will arrive by December this year.

The new "world-class" fleet promises to introduce Delhi-zens to an all-new bus service as they are fitted with pneumatic doors which the bus driver can operate at the press of a button, built in speed governors for added safety, automatic transmission to cut driver fatigue, tubeless tyres, air suspension, a 230 horsepower rear engine for added comfort. The low height makes them disabled friendly.

DTC already has about six low-floor buses plying on city routes but the new fleet, officials say, is completely different.

The existing buses are Indian technology, in comparison to their Brazilian counterparts which have several added features. The maintenance and even cleaning of the new fleet will be done by the manufacturer for the first 7.5 lakh km while DTC will provide drivers, conductors and CNG.

Source: Times of India