Blueline buses to be off Delhi roads from Dec 14

The blueline buses, which earned notoriety for reckless driving, will be off the Delhi roads completely from December 14.

New Delhi: After years of dilly-dallying,
Delhi Government today finally decided to completely phase out
2,400 privately-owned blueline buses, which gained notoriety
for frequent accidents, by December 14.

Transport Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely, after a
marathon meeting with top officials of his department, said
the 1,600 blueline buses, which were shunted out from south
and central Delhi as well as from areas near Commonwealth
Games venues last month, will not be allowed to operate again.
Earlier, there were around 2,400 blueline buses
operating in the capital and now only 800 of them will ply in
the capital till December 14.

"December 14 will be the last day for blueline buses
in Delhi. We cannot leave people of Delhi at the mercy of
blueline buses," Lovely said.

Around 8,000 people were dependent on these
privately-owned buses for their livelihood.

Lovely said Government-run Delhi Transport Corporation
now has 6,500 buses including nearly 4,000 low floor buses and
the fleet will be able to meet transport requirement of the
city.

"More over, we will get 200 more low floor buses in
two-three weeks` time. Apart from that we are expecting 4,000
buses in the cluster bus service," he added.

Out of the 1,600 buses, nearly 835 buses were allowed
to ply in non-NDMC areas from last Saturday and Lovely said a
notification would be issued within two-three days for their
removal also.

The government had set many a deadline in the last few
years to phase out the blueline buses and replace them with
swanky low-floor buses ahead of the Commonwealth Games but
failed.

"We allowed them to ply from Saturday and on the very
first day, a person was killed by a Blueline. We cannot allow
it to continue. I will do everything possible to ensure safety
of people on the roads," Lovely said.

"Government will issue a notification later this week
in this regard. These 835 buses which have got permit will be
taken off the roads by this weekend," Lovely said.

A 21-year-old motorcyclist was killed after allegedly
being hit by a blueline bus near Ashram on Saturday.

The government had last year announced an ambitious
cluster bus service scheme under which corporate entities were
proposed to be given certain routes in the city on the pattern
of cities like Paris and London.

-PTI

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