By SK,.Vyas
New Delhi,August 20, 2019: Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday flagged-off the first lot of new 1,000 buses fitted with unique features, marking the beginning of on ground augmentation of public transport overcoming all difficulties.
Kejriwal flagged-off the 25 new buses under the cluster scheme with unique features including hydraulic lifts for differently-abled passengers, in presence of Transport Minister, Shri Kailash Gahlot, Chief Secretary, Shri Vijay Kumar Dev, all senior officers of the Department of Transport and DIMTS.
Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said: “Today is a day of happiness for Delhiites, since it marks the beginning of the arrival of 3,000 new buses for Delhi. There were a lot of difficulties, but I am happy that all those hurdles have been overcome and finally the delivery of buses has started and the first lot has today hit the roads.”
Transport Minister, Kailash Gahlot said it is a day of personal satisfaction for him, since he has fulfilled the commitment he had given to the Chief Minister about two years back. “Who had ever thought that there would be petitions filed against increasing the bus fleet for improving public transport of Delhi ? We had to fight till the Supreme Court, but we are happy that finally the buses are here,” Gahlot said.
ALL IMPORTANT DETAILS ARE GIVEN BELOW :
1) The schedule of 1,000 new buses under cluster scheme to be on road is as follows :
Month
|
Total
|
August, 2019
|
25
|
September, 2019
|
125
|
October, 2019
|
170
|
November, 2019
|
175
|
December, 2019
|
185
|
January, 2020
|
320
|
Total
|
1000
|
2. The Salient Features of 1,000 new buses are:
· Hydraulic lifts for differently-abled persons to facilitate boarding and alighting of Wheel Chair bound Passengers..
· CCTV Cameras for women safety
· panic buttons with hooter
· GPS units for tracking of bus
§ Anti-vandalism seats
3. The existing fleet of Cluster is 1679 buses and induction of balance buses under Cluster Scheme was delayed primarily due to non-availability of bus depot space.
4. The last tender under Cluster Scheme was released on 07.01.2011 and the Contract was signed on 20.06.2013. New buses are being brought in Delhi after a gap of more than six years.
5. Transport Department has created depot space at Rewla Khanpur, Dwarka Sector-22, Kharkhari Nahar, Bawana Sector-1 and Rani Khera -I, II & III, from where these 1000 new buses will be operated.
6. The 1,000 new buses will be catering to rural area in Delhi which was facing shortage of buses so far. Additional routes providing connectivity to Metro Stations, hospitals and traffic interchange hubs at Inter State Bus Terminals at Kashmere Gate, Anand Vihar Terminal and Sarai Kalen Khan will be served by these buses.
7. For the first time, the Transport Department, has made design improvements in the Standard Floor Buses with the provision of Hydraulic Lift for differently abled persons. The cost of fitment of lifts is being borne by the Delhi government.
1000 Low floor AC buses
8. In addition to above, 1000 Low floor AC buses are also being inducted in cluster scheme. These buses will be suitable for boarding and alighting of differently abled persons, elderly persons, children and women. The contract of 650 Low Floor buses has already been awarded by Department of Transport for three clusters and these buses will start coming from January 2020. The tender for balance 350 buses is being floated soon. The tentative schedule of induction of 650 Low floor AC Buses is as under :
Month
|
Total
|
January, 2020
|
60
|
February, 2020
|
104
|
March, 2020
|
130
|
April, 2020
|
160
|
May, 2020
|
196
|
Total
|
650
|
· New Depots at Ghumanhera, Rohini Sector-3 Bawana Sector-5 and Village Daurala are proposed for these buses
385 Electric buses
9.. Further, Delhi government is also inducting 1000 Electric buses in phases. In the 1stphase, Tender for engagement of 385 buses was issued on 09.03.19 for two clusters. Bids have been received and opened on 09.08.2019 which are being evaluated. Roll out of these buses is expected in February 2020. The balance Electric buses (615) will be brought in next stages. New depots at Rohini Sector-37 , Mundela Kalan , Burari , East Vinod Nagar and Sarai Kale khan are under different stages of construction for housing the electrical buses.
1000 low floor AC buses & 300 Electric AC buses by DTC
- In addition to the buses in Cluster scheme, Buses are being brought by DTC as well. Tenders for 1000 low floor AC buses have been floated and tenders for appointment of consultant for 300 Electric AC buses has also been issued. The 300 buses are being procured with assistance under FAME II scheme of Govt of India.
PANIC BUTTONS
The buttons currently installed in the DTC’S own fleet and cluster buses are mere stop request buttons which came in-built with the buses from the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) when they were handed over to DTC 2008 onwards. These buttons are only meant to alert the bus conductor in case a passenger desires to alight the bus at the next bus stop.
The Panic buttons introduced today along with the new fleet are more secured, technology empowered buttons, never attempted by any government in India in the past and for the first time in the country, the Delhi Government is working 24x7 to make this a reality on Delhi buses.
Starting with these 22 new buses and henceforth, every bus will have these panic buttons at various points in the passenger cabin. Once a passenger will press the panic button, the CCTV footage of the bus will be directly relayed to a centralized command centre and a police hotline will get instantly activated. At the same time, the GPS location of the bus will automatically reach the backend.
With today's launch, the Delhi Government has been able to successfully achieve the vision to provide greater safety for passengers travelling on DTC and cluster buses.
The panic buttons come with an integrated set up of CCTVs and GPS in every bus.
For the 1000 new buses that the Delhi Government is procuring, the system will come in-built from the OEMs.
In addition, the tendering process is underway and will be successfully completed in the coming six weeks for the existing DTC and Cluster buses as well.
Once fully installed in all the buses, Delhi would become the first city in the country to offer a round-the-clock technology-enabled security cover in public buses.