JOIN USSeemapuri to showcase DTC's multi-level parking
The cash-strapped Delhi Transport Corporation’s first multi-level parking will come up at Seemapuri Depot with the PPP project also including commercial use of the land for budget hotels and shopping arcades.
The DTC board has decided to try out the PPP model on a pilot basis at just one depot, ignoring suggestions to try out the experiment at three facilities in a bid to generate extra income for the public bus provider.
Officials said the concept is rooted in shoring up DTC’s funds inflows while creating parking space for its fleet that is to be expanded soon.
“The decision on having multi-level parking at other depots will be taken after analysing and evaluating the success of the Seemapuri project,” said a senior DTC official.
Earlier, the DTC had drawn up plans to build multi-level parking and commercial spaces while redeveloping six depots to take the parking load off the soon-to-be demolished Millennium Bus Depot near the Nizamuddin Bridge.
“The plan was to have such dual use of space in all new depots and simultaneously redevelop the existing depots,” an official said.
The DTC is considering whether construction of multi-level parking at depots could be handed over to a Delhi government agency.
Earlier, a private infrastructure transaction company, SREI Infrastructure Finance, was contacted to conduct a study and help DTC with the arrangements related to giving out commercial spaces, said an official.
The proposed commercial spaces in the Seemapuri depot will have easy access from the areas visited by public for inquiry and getting bus passes made, said a DTC official.
No decision has yet been taken on sharing the DTC’s parking facilities with private bus owners.
The DTC has around 30 bus depots and a fleet of nearly 5,000 buses. The public transporter, credited with running the world’s largest CNG fleet of buses, remains under constant financial strain due to delays in fare revision and some of the welfare responsibilities like operating rural bus routes that do not yield commercial returns.
The DTC is struggling to generate resources for itself in a situation where it’s financial reserves have dwindled to such a level that payment of pension to former employees’ was disrupted for a few months in the current financial year.
The Corporation recently invested surplus fund of Rs 292 crores with Yes Bank. The empanelment of the bank for the investment was given ex-post-facto approval by the DTC Board.