[sustran] Updates on Delhi bus crisis

[SUSTRAN Network Secretariat]

Times of India
Tuesday 4 April 2000 
Delhi 
 
Commuters stranded as buses vanish 
By A Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: The Capital's public transport system was thrown into a tizzy
following the withdrawal of 1,750 DTC buses and 2,100 contract carriages as
per the Supreme Court's orders.

Though DTC had pressed its entire fleet of 750 inter-state buses on city
routes they turned out to be grossly inadequate. People were seen stranded
at bus-stops during peak office hours in the morning and evening.

The worst affected routes included parts of outer Delhi and the rural areas
of city. The government plies DTC buses on these ``loss-making routes as
part of its social obligation.''

However, on Monday DTC did not have sufficient buses for these areas.
``People in my area could not reach office as there were no buses. The
commuters kept waiting for several hours,'' a Congress MLA from outer Delhi
said.

Senior transport officials said even on other routes buses running under
the STA permits and DTC operation had to make additional trips in view of
the high passenger load.

The situation, an official admitted, was particularly bad during the peak
hours and many would have reached their office late. ``Due to phasing out
of DTC buses the load on private buses increased substantially on Monday.
Many commuters, thus, had to wait longer to catch a bus,'' he added.

Transport officials feel the chaos is likely to continue for another week
by when the government hopes to provide some alternative arrangement in the
form of private buses under the Km Scheme.

The issue also dominated the Delhi assembly on Monday with BJP MLAs
demanding a detailed discussion on the ``acute shortage'' of buses in the
Capital.

Pandemonium prevailed in the House as the BJP MLAs persisted with their
demand despite repeated requests from the Speaker that the House
proceedings be allowed to continue. The Speaker also had to adjourn the
House twice.

Thirteen BJP MLAs were finally suspended from the House for the day when
they walked into the well of the House and sat on the floor raising slogans
against the government.

Later, transport minister Parvez Hashmi gave a statement on the issue and
assured the House that the situation would become normal within a week.

Hashmi said the government was in the process of issuing temporary permits
to those operators willing to ply their new buses under the Km Scheme.

Till late Monday evening the government had received tenders from nearly
750 bus owners who, officials claimed, will ply their buses from Wednesday.

``Once these buses start plying the pressure will ease. We have also
requested the contract carriage operators to withdraw their new buses from
the inter-state routes and put them in the city,'' Hashmi added.

The minister also informed the House that though the government was keen to
buy another 100 CNG buses, adequate fuel was not available even for the
existing 21 CNG buses.

Hashmi claimed the Gas Authority of India Limited had assured that there
would be 82 filling stations in the Capital by April 1, 2000, but they had
failed to open even one. ``Our buses have to wait in long queues to get the
fuel as it takes almost 40 minutes to fill one bus,'' Hashmi added.

The House later passed a resolution criticising the Union petroleum
ministry for failing to provide adequate filling stations in the Capital.

© Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. 2000.  
--------------------------------------------

The Times of India
Wednesday 5 April 2000 
Delhi 
 
Bluelines, autos, taxis to go on strike 
By A Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: The Federation of Transport Union Congress, an umbrella
organisation for 16 transport unions, has decided to go on a two-day
strike, April 10 and 11, to protest against the ``ineffective'' handling of
the polluting vehicles issue by the Delhi government.

This means all buses, including Blueline, TSRs, taxis and commercial
vehicles will be off the road for two days.

``The government failed to present its case properly before the Supreme
Court. They should have sought an extension much before the March 31
deadline fixed by the court. We have now requested the government to file a
review petition,'' said president of the Congress, Jaswant Singh Arora.

He said though the transporters were keen to switch to CNG vehicles, the
government had failed to provide sufficient kits and fuel.

Similar views were expressed by the Contract Carriage Operators Association
whose 2,500 buses were withdrawn following court directives. The general
secretary of the Association, Harish Sabharwal said this was causing a
daily loss of Rs 50 lakh to the operators.

``Majority of these buses had been deployed for schools which have been the
worst hit,'' said Sabharwal. He claimed the Delhi government had now
granted them permission to ply their old buses on inter-state routes.

The contract carriage operators will also be joining the two-day strike.
The association is also planning to file a petition seeking exemption for
the contract carriages.

``Like DTC, we cannot withdraw the new buses from inter- state routes and
ply them in the city as this is commercially not viable. We will never
agree to this formula,'' said Sabharwal.

In the absence of contract carriages, several schools continued to face
problems on Tuesday. The scene, however, was not half as chaotic as on
Monday. Schools and, of course, parents, who were caught unawares on
Monday, had taken measures to tackle the lack of school buses by Tuesday.

Gyan Bharati School at Saket, for instance, was severely hit by the
scarcity of buses on Monday. Though the school closes at 1.30 pm, the
authorities could only manage to send the children home by 3.30 pm on Monday.

By Tuesday, the situation was better. ``The attendance was okay...things
improved a bit,'' said principal R C Shekhar. Another official of the
school, which used to ply 20 private chartered buses but had to make do
with 10 on Tuesday, said several parents had made arrangements to drop and
pick their children from the school.

``The last child left the school around 2.30 pm on Tuesday,'' he added.
Several other schools had also made alternate arrangements to deal with the
drastic reduction in the number of buses.

Some schools, however, continued to run buses which are more than eight
years old. A school principal, who did not want to be identified, said,
``There is some confusion...some other principals told me the Supreme Court
order does not apply to school buses.''

Transport officials meanwhile claimed an additional 1,000 buses will be
introduced under the Km Scheme within this week. ``Till Tuesday evening,
around 924 applications forms had been received and the transporters are
willing to provide new buses in the next few days,'' an official added.

Meanwhile, the DTC has set up control rooms where commuters can register
their complaints regarding shortage of buses. Telephone numbers for these
control rooms are: Central - 3371587, West - 5781250, south - 4672544, east
- 2293553 and north - 7199807.

© Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. 2000.  
------------------------------------------

The Times of India
Thursday 6 April 2000 

NEW DELHI: The Delhi government on Wednesday decided to issue temporary
permits to an additional 500 buses.

Following the Supreme Court orders the government was to grant permits to
1,000 buses. Keeping in view the shortfall of buses, it was subsequently
decided to increase the number of permits to 1,500.

Transport minister Parvez Hashmi said the increase in the number of buses
will help solve the transport crisis. ``Forms for nearly 1,300 buses have
already been issued and more than 50 buses are on the road. All the 1,500
buses should be on the road by the weekend,'' Hashmi added.

While the DTC was forced to withdraw around 1,800 buses following Supreme
Court directives, the contract carriages had to phase out nearly 2,500
buses. As an alternative measure, the DTC has pressed its entire fleet of
750 inter-state buses on the city routes. ``These 1,500 buses will help
solve the transport problem to a large extent,'' Hashmi added.

The government will initially grant temporary permits for a period of four
months which will be subsequently renewed.

Hashmi said the government was also talking to the contract carriage
operators to solve their problem. ``We will see if they can be offered
attractive rates to ply their new buses in the city,'' a senior transport
official said.

The transport department on Tuesday had granted permission to the contract
carriage operators to ply their old buses on the inter- state routes.

The transport department has meanwhile also come out with a scheme to
upgrade TSR owners to taxis. According to the court orders more than 17,200
TSRs and 1,200 taxis which were pre-1990 vehicles were phased out.

The government has now offered a scheme to these TSR operators to buy
CNG-run Maruti Omni taxis. These operators will be provided a subsidy of
four per cent on the interest to be charged on the loan granted by the
Delhi Finance Corporation.

Sales tax on these vehicles will also be waived. Hashmi claimed a number of
TSR and taxi operators had shown interest in this scheme. ``This scheme is
similar to the one we had offered to motorcycle-rickshaw operators to
switch to diesel jeeps,'' he added.

Hashmi however, was quick to add that the government cannot take any
guarantee for providing fuel to these vehicles as the Union petroleum
ministry has failed to provide sufficient filling stations.

© Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. 2000.  
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Distributed for the purpose of education and research.

A. Rahman Paul BARTER
Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia
and the Pacific (the SUSTRAN Network)
P.O. Box 11501, Kuala Lumpur 50748, Malaysia.
E-mail: sustran at po.jaring.my
URL: http://www.malaysiakini.com/sustran

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