Only 3000 Odd DTC Buses in Delhi can Spell Doom for City Transportation

The national capital territory and a highly populated city in India, Delhi asks for a robust transport system. As per a government affidavit, the city is in need of at least 11,000 buses. However, the situation looks abysmal as the current number of DTC buses, which is a mere 4,150, will further be downsized in the near future. This shows that the state transport facility is in dire condition and is gradually aging, bringing in immense focus on urgent call of action that needs to be taken for better transportation needs.

DTC owned 4,461 buses in January this year, which was further reduced to 4,150 (as per the current count). Some of the vehicles became non-functional due to accidents and fire. Sources predict that within the next few months, around 300-400 standard-floor buses will be scrapped and the number will stand at 3,775 low-floor buses (of which 2,500 are low-floor ones).

The most worrying fact is that only 85-90 percent of these vehicles operate on the roads on any given day, owing to maintenance issues and other factors. Over 35 lakh commuters use DTC buses on any given day. The last time DTC expanded its fleet on a huge scale was in 2010.

Apart from DTC, the cluster bus system operates 1,500 buses in Delhi. Although the government was supposed to add 1000 buses each to the cluster system and the DTC fleet, and another 1,000 to a new premium bus category after Phase-I and Phase-II of the odd-even scheme, only 100 buses have been added to the cluster system so far. The proposal for purchase of DTC buses hasn’t got an approval yet.