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Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 20
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, Chief Secretary and other senior officers of the Department of Transport and DIMTS.
Chief Minister said, today was a day of happiness for Delhiites, since it marked the beginning of arrival of 3,000 new buses in 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 hit the roads today,” he said.
Transport Minister, Kailash Gahlot said it was a day of personal satisfaction for him, since he had fulfilled the commitment he had made 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,” he said.
According to Gahlot the new buses will be on road by August 25 and around 1,000 buses will be plying on Delhi roads by January 2020.
The new buses have special features like Hydraulic lifts for differently-abled persons to facilitate boarding. CCTV Cameras for women safety, panic buttons with hooter, GPS units for tracking bus, anti-vandalism seats are other features available in the new buses.
The existing fleet of cluster is 1,679 buses and induction of balance buses under cluster scheme was delayed primarily due to non-availability of bus depot space.
New buses are being brought in the Capital after a gap of more than six years, the minister said.
Further Transport Department has created depot space at Rewla Khanpur, Dwarka Sector-22, Kharkhari Nahar, Bawana Sector-1 and Rani Khera -I, II and III, from where these buses will be operated. However, 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.
In addition to 1,000 cluster buses, the Chief Minister today also announced 1,000 hi-tech low floor buses under cluster scheme.
Features of new buses under the cluster scheme
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