Traffic chaos in Delhi? 80 ageing buses break down daily in capital, reveals police data

New Delhi: It’s a familiar sight on the roads of Delhi: a ragged DTC bus huffs and puffs as it struggles to climb one of the many flyovers dotting the capital. Before reaching the crest, the bus puffs one last time and simply gives up.

The ensuing traffic chaos caused by the stalled bus blocking one lane—sometimes one and a half lanes—is a frequent nightmare faced by commuters almost every day.

Data obtained by PTI from Delhi Traffic Police has revealed that a whopping 79 DTC or cluster buses broke down every day in Delhi between July 2022 and June 2023 with around 40 minutes taken to attend to the situation.

"I am fed up!" said Rajesh Vishwakarma, a resident of Indraprastha Extension who commutes daily to his office in Connaught Place. He said he often encounters broken buses on Vikas Marg, leading up to ITO via the Yamuna Bridge.

"The situation is worse when a bus breaks down in the morning or evening rush hours," he said.

Government officials say these near-retirement CNG-run vehicles are on the verge of being phased out to make way for a new fleet of electric variants, which hopefully will ease the traffic snarls in the city.

Equally vexed are officials of the Delhi Traffic Police, who routinely post on social media: "Traffic is affected due to breakdown of a bus."

Replying to one such post on X, formerly Twitter, a frustrated Amiti Dave said she was stuck in a traffic jam near the IIT flyover for one and a half hours recently after a bus stopped on the Outer Ring Road on a section between IIT and New Delhi.

Every breakdown causes hours of inconvenience, as most flyovers and roads in the capital are two lanes. With one lane blocked, a line of honking cars, tempos, autorickshaws, motorcycles and every other kind of transportation clog the road. Impatient drivers try to get ahead by cutting into each other’s paths, worsening the snarl.

Often, a bus, possibly with a tree branch stuck on it to serve as a futile and feeble indicator of non-service, would have broken down while straddling both lanes, resulting in near total blockage of traffic and greater chaos.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) S K Singh told PTI that the major challenge police face during the breakdown of a bus is the massive traffic jam it results in.

"Since these buses cannot be towed away by a crane, we have to depend on breakdown vans provided by the transport department. These vans also face a challenge in reaching the spot due to traffic jams on the same stretch," he said.

A government official said when a bus breaks down, it cannot be towed away immediately or moved to the side unless mechanics are at hand.

Officials blame the age of the buses for the frequent breakdowns.

"These buses are 10 to 12 years old. In human terms, they are well past their retirement. These are our ageing warhorses that have battled wear and tear. They travel on bumpy roads often carrying more passengers than their capacity," said a transport department official.

The Delhi Transport Corporation, or DTC, has a fleet of 7,582 buses. Of these, 2,644 were procured by the state-owned public transporter between 2007 and 2010.

The DTC and cluster buses ferry more than 41 lakh passengers every day, making them the most important means of commute for many residents of NCR.

In comparison, on weekdays, the average count of daily passenger ‘journeys’ in Delhi Metro stands at around 65 lakh. According to metro authorities, journey or line utilisation is calculated by the number of corridors passengers use to reach their destinations. This means a passenger changing trains once to reach their destination is deemed to have made two journeys.

A bus travels an average of 200 kilometres daily, which means it would have travelled more than 10 lakh kilometres in 14 years. The certified life of a DTC bus on paper is 12 years or 7.5 lakh kilometres but in 2019, the government decided to increase their operational life to 15 years.

Delhi Traffic Police data show that incidents of bus breakdowns have been rising steadily in the last two years. A total of 809 breakdowns were reported in July 2022. The figure surged to 977, 1,192 and 2,132 in October, November and December 2022 respectively.

Next year, the number went up dramatically -- January 2023 saw 3,029 breakdowns while the figures stood at 3,296, 5,309, 4,476, 3613 and 3,145 for the months of February, March, April, May and June respectively that year.

Explaining the reasons for the frequent breakdowns, former deputy transport commissioner Anil Chhikara said the CNG-run buses are prone to overheating in engines, short circuits and other issues that affect vehicles with age.

"The vehicular traffic on the roads in Delhi is almost five to six times the capacity they can accommodate. Naturally, if a bus breaks down in the middle of the road, the manoeuvring of other vehicles around that spot leads to traffic jams.

"The problem has worsened over the years. Earlier, when a bus would break down, it would not lead to traffic jams, but now the breakdown of a bus leads to massive traffic jams."

Last year, the city government informed the Delhi Assembly that the short-circuits were the most common reason behind the fire incidents that mostly occurred in buses around 12 years of age. Government committees over the years have also pointed at poor maintenance by service providers.

Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said that the Delhi government is phasing out those buses and by next year 80 per cent of the bus fleet will be electric.

"The fleet of DTC buses is old and we have been working to phase out the old ones by introducing electric buses. So far, we have added 1,650 electric buses to the cluster and DTC fleet and by next year, 80 per cent of our bus fleet will be electric.

"Under the leadership of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, we are moving towards sustainability in transportation. I have time and again issued instructions to DTC to address calls related to bus breakdowns on top priority," Gahlot told PTI.