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35% dip in DTC bus travellers: Centre for Science and Environment

The average ridership of the state-run public transport came down from 47 lakh in 2012-13 to around 30 lakh by the end of 2016

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The number of daily commuters on the government's Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses has come down by 35% over the past four years, revealed a report prepared by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

The average ridership of the state-run public transport came down from 47 lakh in 2012-13 to around 30 lakh by the end of 2016, the report said. "As per the latest available DTC statistics, about 30 lakh passengers are carried daily, of which only 14 lakh (45%) are ticketed passengers. The rest 16 lakh (55%) use passes. Thus, a pass holder is counted as travelling nine times during the course of a single day and that inflates the daily trip number. It is possible, therefore, that the daily ridership is expected to be much less than the estimated 30-lakh figure," it stated.

The report comes at a time when the AAP government has received much flak for not adding to the depleting bus fleet of the state-run bus service as well as no upgradation in the existing transport infrastructure.

The report highlighted that the DTC bought new buses in 2011-12. "There has been almost no addition to the fleet in the past five years. If no new buses are added now, the entire fleet will get nearly phased out by 2025."

It further said, the DTC also does not use around 700 buses on any given day, mainly due to breakdowns. This is leading to the "rapid loss" of daily ridership, the report stated. The DTC currently operates 3,800 buses while Delhi Integrated Multi Modal System (DIMTS) runs around 1,600 buses under the Cluster Scheme. "There is a shortage of 5,000-10,000 buses based on required estimates and the mandate," it stated.

It also found loopholes in the utilisation of the bus fleet by the DTC. "DTC's fleet utilisation has come down to 83.63% in 2015-16, from 85.51% in 2013-14," it said.

The Delhi government has started the process for procurement of 1,000 buses each for the DTC and Cluster scheme.The report suggested for speeding up the process. The city requires at least 11,000 more buses to cater to the growing demand of the Capital.

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