Bluelines will soon be a thing of the past as the Delhi Government will start phasing them out and replace them with swanky buses.
Bluelines will soon be a thing of the past as the Delhi Government will start phasing them out from next month and replace them with swanky buses.
"The phase out of these buses will start from July and it will take at least five months to complete the entire process," Delhi's Transport Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely said.
He said the government is determined to put in place a modern bus fleet ahead of next year's Commonwealth Games in the city.
At present, nearly 2,200 Blueline buses are plying on the city's roads. Apart from the existing low floor buses, the city will get another lot of 2,500 vehicles in next couple of months.
Lovely said the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) will have a fleet of around 5,000 modern buses during the prestigious Commonwealth Games.
"I can assure you that we will have a modern and comfortable transport system ahead of the mega sporting event," he said.
The delivery of these buses was supposed to start in March but the manufacturers -- Ashok Leyland and Tata Motors -- have sought more time from the government, saying they have limited capacity in their plants.
The government, which reportedly pulled up the two manufacturers for the delay, now hopes to start the phasing out of the Blueline buses, which killed nearly 120 people in accidents last year, once the new vehicles start arriving.
The Cabinet on Tuesday gave the go ahead to the DTC to procure 1,000 semi-low floor buses to augment the fleet of modern buses in the national capital.
Officials said the decision to procure the semi-low floor buses was taken following delay in delivery of the low floor buses.
Lovely said the supply of these buses will be prompt and each bus will cost Rs 15 lakh less than the low-floor bus. The DTC has not received a single-low floor bus since July 2008.
Officials said apart from the DTC buses, over 4,000 buses will be added to the transport system as part of the private fleet.
The government has identified 17 clusters where private operators will be allowed to operate.
Lovely said the government will allow semi-low floor buses for private clusters also as private operators will also face the problem of delay in getting low-floor buses.
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