DTC buses break down, cause jams all the time

Towing them away from busy roads no easy task

Delhi Transport Corporation buses breaking down on busy roads is turning out to be a major cause of traffic jams.

In the last two days alone, over two dozen traffic advisories issued by the city traffic police pertained to congestion due to the break down of state-run buses. 

Getting the broken down low-floor DTC buses out of the way is generally a time taking process.

The buses can’t be towed away by traffic police cranes because of pneumatic and hydraulic control supporting them. 

In order to remove buses, the hydraulic pressure supporting need to be released first by the trained DTC staff, said the Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Sharad Aggarwal, while adding that removing broken down DTC buses is a time-taking process. He added that the Delhi Traffic Police has communicated the increasing problem of bus break downs to the corporation.

The break down of buses creates traffic jams not just on the arterial roads. Many traffic advisories issued by the traffic police on Twitter suggest that many of the breakdowns happened on the busy Ring Road.

“Three DTC Buses No DL 1PC 6659, DL IPB 5510 and DL IPC 7009 broken down at AIIMS bus stop, in the carriageway running from AIIMS towards Moolchand, causing congestion, shall be removed soon. Inconvenience regretted,” posted the Traffic Police at 5.41 pm on Wednesday.

Another tweet at 20.24 pm confirmed that all the three buses have been removed.The city traffic police say it takes longer to tow away buses during evenings, more so on weekdays. 

On an average over 600 buses break down every day, sources in the DTC say, while admitting that the numbers have gone up in the recent past. 

The corporation, however, claimed that it is working with the manufacturers to ensure better response time in attending breakdown cases.