1,600 blueline buses to go off roads from tomorrow

After getting approval from Lt Governor Tejinder Khanna, the city government issued a notification today paving way for their removal. These buses were kept off the roads during the Commonwealth Games.

"We have issued the notification and the buses will have to go off the roads from tomorrow," Transport Commissioner R K Verma said. There are around 2,400 privately-owned blueline buses currently operating in the capital and only 800 of them will continue to ply till December 14, the deadline set by the Government for their total removal.

After years of dilly-dallying, Delhi Government on Monday had decided to completely phase out the blueline buses by December 14. The government last month had shunted out 1,600 buses from south and central Delhi as well as from areas near Commonwealth Games venues and nearly 835 buses were allowed to ply again in non-NDMC areas from last Saturday.

The government decided to go for complete phase out of the blueline fleet after finding that commuters did not face much of a problem when these buses were kept off the roads during the Games.

Transport Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely said Government-run Delhi Transport Corporation now has 6,500 buses including nearly 4,000 low floor buses and the fleet will be able to meet transport requirement of the city.

The government had set many a deadline in the last few years to phase out the blueline buses and replace them with swanky low-floor buses ahead of the Commonwealth Games but failed.

According to government statistics, 182 people had lost their lives in accidents involving blueline buses in 2005 while the number of people killed by these buses in 2006 was 163. 108 people lost their lives in 2008 while in 2009, 115 people were killed in accidents involving blueline buses.