Delhi bus route revamp to start from Oct 2 on trial basis

The Delhi government is set to introduce new bus routes on a trial basis starting October 2 with an aim to make public transportation in the city more accessible for all. The state transport department on Tuesday released a list of the proposed bus routes in order to seek suggestions and/or objections from the public.

The average daily ridership of Delhi’s state-run buses is about 4.2 million -- much higher than that of the Delhi Metro, at around 2.7 million. At present, 7,300 buses operate on 625 routes in Delhi. The problem is that many of these routes overlap, resulting in some routes being overfed while others remaining underserved.

“Delhi’s bus routes have largely remained unchanged for at least 20 years, while during this period, there has been a huge population explosion and new colonies have sprung up. The Metro has also expanded… The old bus routes do not fit in as business, leisure and commercial hubs have changed. So, this route rationalisation plan is extremely crucial to make public transport more accessible to the public at a time when Delhi has one of the highest numbers of private vehicles, resulting in road congestion and air pollution,” transport minister Kailash Gahlot told HT.

As per the government’s route rationalisation plan, the government will divide bus routes into six categories -- central business district (CBD) circulators that will provide connectivity between major CBDs of the city, with buses operating at a frequency of 5-10 minutes; trunk routes, which will carry passengers from major hubs (sub-CBDs) to CBDs at a frequency of 5-10 minutes; primary routes, that will provide transportation from residential areas to sub-CBDs and will have buses at an interval of 10-20 minutes; airport service routes, which will connect sub-CBDs to the airport at an interval of 10 minutes; last mile feeder bus routes, which will link residential areas and villages to trunk or primary routes, including metro stations, with a frequency of 7-15 minutes; and NCR routes, for those commuting from NCR cities to Delhi, with a frequency of 20 minutes.

A senior transport official said during the trial stage, the feeder bus routes and NCR routes will not be tested. “All other bus routes will be implemented on a trial basis, for which 50% of our 7,300 buses will be deployed. The other 50% of our buses will continue on the old routes so that the public is not inconvenienced,” the senior official said, requesting anonymity.

Gahlot said that the Delhi government plans to increase its fleet of buses from the current 7,300 to 11,000 over a period of four years. In the coming years, the government also plans to place orders for mini- or medium-sized buses that would be 9 metres long -- the current DTC and cluster buses are 12 metres long.

The government is also set to introduce for the first time bus routes to Ghaziabad -- at present, Delhi’s buses feed only the NCR cities of Noida, Gurugram and Faridabad, and a route to Ghaziabad has been a long-pending demand.