Transport dept gives green signal to 300 feeder buses

More feeder buses are likely to be on the city roads soon, with the transport department allowing the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation to run 300 additional buses. 

“We have cleared the proposal to run the feeder buses and have given permit for 300 buses. These will be 18-24 seater buses, similar to the already existing buses,”  P K Gupta, special commissioner (Transport) told Deccan Herald. 

The DMRC officials said the purchase of new buses will start soon. “The tenders for procuring these buses will be issued within a fortnight. The paperwork is at its final stage,” a DMRC official said. However, the official refused to give any deadline for rolling out the buses.

No decision has been taken about the routes on which the buses would be operated as of now, he added.  “The route will be decided only after the buses are procured. The plan to put buses on the already existing routes or to run some of them on new routes has to be worked out,” the Delhi metro official said.

Feeder buses are the mini-buses operated by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) across several routes providing last mile connectivity to metro commuters.

Presently, around 120 feeder buses are plying on 16 different routes every 10 or 15 minutes. The Metro stations providing the bus service are Shastri Park, Netaji Subhash Place, Pitampura, Rohini West, Kirti Nagar, Rajendra Place, Dwarka sector 9 & 10, Laxmi Nagar and Tilak Nagar.

Apart from Delhi Metro, feeder buses are also being run by Haryana roadways at different stations on the Jahangirpuri-Huda City Centre line. Delhi Transport Corporation and the Uttar Pradesh Roadways also run shuttle services at some of the Metro stations.