Gunjan Pradhan Sinha & Vikas Bhardwaj NEW DELHI INFRASTRUCTURE Leasing and Finance Services (IL&FS) Development Corporation is laying down the blueprint for multi-level bus terminals with taxi stands, private food chain outlets and shopping complexes in Gujarat, Punjab, West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The infrastructure consulting and investment firm may also pick up a stake in these projects.
The Capital will take another major leap in the field of public transportation with induction of air-conditioned buses into the Delhi Transport Corporation fleet this coming week. These red low-floor buses will hopefully draw more and more users of cars and other private vehicles over to the public transport system. The new air-conditioned buses would provide the citizens a more comfortable mode of travel, especially in the hot and humid summer months. According to Delhi Transport Minister Haroon Yusuf, these would form the first lot of air-conditioned buses to be inducted into the DTC.
Leading logistics and transport companies are willing to operate Blueline buses on certain lustre routes in Delhi. As many as 11 players have submitted their bids for operating 200 private carriage buses in the capital at an estimated cost of Rs 57 crore. The firms include Orix Auto Infrastructure Services Ltd, a joint venture between Japan-based Orix Corporation and IL&FS, Mega Corporation Ltd, Goverdhan Transport Company Pvt Ltd, City Life Line Travels Pvt Ltd, Indraprastha Logistics Ltd and Starbus Services.
The transport department of the Delhi government today banned the movement of Blueline buses on much-criticised BRT corridor from Ambedkar Nagar to Moolchand and deployed additional low-floor buses on it. Delhi transport minister Haroon Yusuf said that this had been done to make the movement of buses smooth as earlier it was reported that traffic jam occurred due to Blueline buses. Bus drivers halted the vehicles wherever they wanted. They do not maintain discipline. Now plying of only low-floor DTC buses will ease the traffic movement, he said.
A rude shock awaited Delhiites who happened to take the Ambedkar Nagar-Moolchand Hospital stretch of the controversial new Bus Rapid Transit corridor in the Capital on the second day of its trial run on Monday with utter chaos and clutter crippling traffic flow to a snail's pace.
The Delhi government has procured a digital map to track the movement of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses that will initially run on four selected routes in the city. As reported by this newspaper for the first time, the draft has been prepared by Delhi Integrated Multi Modal Transit System (DIMTS) to track the movement of DTC buses fitted with global positioning system devices. The process will be extended to other routes in the near future.
The trial run on the first 5.6-km section of the highly controversial Bus Rapid Transit Corridor from Ambedkar Nagar to Moolchand Hospital in South Delhi would begin from April 22. To begin with, 20 new low-floor buses would be pressed into service on this section. Disclosing this on Wednesday, Delhi Transport Minister Haroon Yusuf expressed confidence that the corridor would live up to public expectations. "The corridor would be formally thrown open to the public in the first week of May. I am sure people will appreciate it once it is opened,' he said.
