Metro misses feeder buses deadline, promises bigger fleet

The Delhi Metro has missed another deadline to induct 300 feeder buses, but has now firmed up plans to introduce a bigger and better fleet by March.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation will instead get 400 new buses — 100 of them will be able to seat some eight commuters more per bus than those carried by buses in the existing fleet of around 115.

“About 30 such buses have already been procured from the contractors,” said a DMRC official.

The last deadline for inducting the 300 buses was December 2013. “The deadline has been extended to March 31, 2014. The delay has been caused as the contractors were not able to deliver on time,” he added.

“The contractors said they couldn’t finish the project because the new buses (100) with revised specifications were to be designed, manufactured and tested,” he said.According to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, these new 400 buses will ply on 80 different routes in the capital. 

At present,  the two contractors — M/s Prasanna Purple Mobility Solution Pvt Ltd and M/s Vijay Tour & Travels — run 117 buses on 17 feeder routes.

There are a total of eight depots for feeder buses. These are at Kohat Enclave, Shastri Park, Janakpuri West, Dwarka Sector 9, Chattarpur, Inderlok, Paschim Vihar and Azadpur.

“The maintenance is done by the contractors and they are regularly reminded in case of defective buses during annual motor vehicle inspections which ensures relevant standards of upkeep,” said the DMRC official.

“We pay a proper attention in regard and the buses are being run after declaring them fit and road worthy by state transport authority.” 

The DMRC introduce feeder buses to provide passengers last mile connectivity of metro stations with residential colonies. 

According to the original plan, the buses were scheduled to hit the roads by November 2012. 

The project got delayed and Delhi Metro set March 2013 as the deadline, which it again failed to meet and targeted to procure these buses by July 2013. But it could not procure buses on time and set December 2013 as its new deadline.