New Delhi: Public transport system in North
and West Delhi areas is all set to improve as 50 semi low-
floor buses were on Monday introduced under the ambitious cluster
bus service to be operated by private parties under PPP model.
With induction of the 50 buses, the number of buses under
the cluster service has gone up to 150. The first cluster
service was launched in May for South Delhi areas.
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Transport
Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely flagged off the buses at a
function.
Although all buses inducted under the cluster buses
previously were low-floor, the current lot comprises semi-low
floor buses which are modified version of the standard floor
buses.
All the semi low-floor orange coloured buses have an on
board passenger information system similar to that of Delhi
Metro, GPS and electronic display board. The buses will
operate on cluster no three, five and four.
The new buses will operate between West Delhi and North
East Delhi areas such as Punjabi Bagh Mangolpuri, Kamla
Market, Wazirpur Depot Wazirpur, ISBT Kashmere Gate, Sukhbir
Nagar, Rithala Village, Old Delhi Railway station, Rani Khera,
Tikri Border and Azadpur Terminal.
The combined length of the routes to be covered by the
new buses would be around 236 km.
In 2009, the Delhi government had divided nearly 650
bus routes across the city into 17 clusters each comprising
profitable and non-profitable routes and decided to give each
cluster to a private operator. Four corporate entities were
already given contract to operate the services in five
clusters.
PTI
First Published: Monday, November 14, 2011, 21:40