Better DTC bus links for Metro soon

The Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) is planning to review the existing bus routes to make them more useful in enhancing commuters' connectivity with Metro stations. Some of the routes have not been reviewed for decades.

A Delhi government official said the exercise would not only result in modification of the existing DTC routes but may also throw up ideas for starting new routes.

The move comes close to the Metro station connectivity issue that was raised by commuters while interacting with Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu when he recently travelled on the Airport Metro.

In the coming days, the DTC is likely to devise means to improve the connectivity of Metro stations.

“Areas untouched by the DTC may also get better connectivity after the exercise,” said a transport department official.

A transport department official said, “A review of the bus routes done in 2008 would also be considered during the latest exercise to make the existing routes more user-friendly.”

 The Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS) Ltd, joint venture company with the Delhi government, had also prepared a report in 2011 for revamping the existing routes.

“There were some issues raised by the DTC. They did not agree on some points and the   proposal was reworked thrice but it is still to be implemented,” said a transport department official.

The DIMTS report pointed out that the DTC bus routes have not been changed for the past 20 years during which the transport scenario in the city has undergone drastic changes.

The transport department official said the report also talked about introducing 22 new routes and suggested tweaking 169 routes in keeping with the changing scenario.

“On the issue of last mile connectivity, the experts even suggested that the DTC and the Delhi Metro should collectively draft new routes or change the existing ones,” said the official.