300 Metro feeder buses will miss deadline to hit roads

The much awaited feeder buses providing last mile connectivity from metro stations will be delayed as they are expected to hit Delhi roads only by July 2013.

A parliamentary panel had asked Urban Development Ministry to ensure that 300 feeder buses should ply on Metro network within six months during April this year.

Sudhir Krishna, Urban Development Secretary, had then promised that the buses will soon be operational, but effectively they will become a city bus service. Krishna had then argued that   the buses will have to be handled by Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) as well.

The parliamentary committee had then asked the Ministry to work in tangent with the Delhi government and DTC.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) claims that it had selected an operator soon after the committee’s directions. But the selected operator failed to meet its requirements.

“The earlier order of these 300 buses to the previous operator was rejected as the supplier could not comply with DMRC’s technical specifications. We expect the new lot
of buses to be inducted from July 2013,” said a DMRC official.

After consulting with Delhi government, DMRC has assigned the work to Rajdhani Bus Cluster Service as the cluster operator.

“They will be responsible for procurement, operation and maintenance of these 300 buses. We have already issued the letter of acceptance with a contract period of 10 years,” the official added.

The buses will be rolled out in batches of 100 when they are ready. DMRC will provide Rs 8 lakh per bus as a grant to the operator.

“The operator will pay fixed and variable amount per bus per month for 108 months,” said the official.

The buses will operate from 72 State Transport Authority approved routes and cover nearly 60 metro stations with a seating capacity of 28 to 32 persons.

Presently, close to 120 feeder buses are plying on 16 different routes with a frequency of 10 to 15 minutes.

Metro stations providing these bus services include Netaji Subhash Place, Shastri Park, Rohini West, Kirti Nagar, Rajendra Place, Pitampura, Dwarka sector 9 and 10, Laxmi Nagar and Tilak Nagar.