Delhiites will soon have options in public transport, as electric buses will be whizzing on some roads. The state government has announced the decision to introduce Electric Trolley Buses (ETBs) and also allow high capacity bus system (HCBS) to operate in the city by October.
The introduction of ETBs is a part of the move to diversify fuel used in transportation. The roads will have to be re-engineered to allow the ETBs and HCBS to run along the central verge. While ETBs will need installation of overhead electric wires, separate corridors will be constructed for HCBS.
Ajay Maken, Transport Minister of Delhi, said: "Although an electric coil will be connected to the bus, it will be loose enough to allow the bus to manoeuvre freely." These buses will ply only on 35 metre wide roads on a 16-km route.
The first phase of ETBs will run between Hari Nagar in west Delhi to Central Secretariat, near Connaught Place the heart of Delhi. The stopovers include Lajwanti Garden, Kirby Place, Dhaula Kuan, Sardar Patel Marg, Willington Crescent and Talkatora Stadium.
The second route will be between south Delhi's Badarpur, Sarita Vihar, Ashram Chowk, Humayun's Tomb, Sunder Nagar and Pragati Maiden.
Several corridors have been identified for HCBS. These roads will have dedicated bus lanes and slow moving traffic will not be allowed on them. These buses will run on arterial roads where the space for such vehicles will be available. The corridors will have HCBS moving in both directions.
Apart from separate lanes for these buses, bicycle tracks and pedestrian facilities will also be developed. Four lanes are being planned two for cars, one for buses and one for bicycles and other traffic.
The system is expected to serve about 360,000 passengers daily with each bus being able to carry up to 200 passengers instead of the current capacity of 50 passengers. Moreover, these vehicles will have low floor and wide doors.
Meanwhile, to supervise the implementation of the two projects, the city government has constituted an apex body, the Delhi Transport Planning Group.
Maken said the 133-km route has been charted to facilitate interchange of modes of transport. According to the minister, new bus terminals will also be constructed along the periphery. And two Inter State Bus Terminals (ISBT) will come up in Dwarka and Narela.
Transport in Delhi has been in a mess for a long time with Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and the private Blueline buses finding themselves unable to meet the demands of the harassed passengers.
With city's population having increased manifold in the past few years, the only means of the public transport is found over-crowded at all hours of the day. That apart, inefficiency and punctuality have always caused inconvenience to commuters.
Of late it was felt that the Metro Rail, first phase of which became operational a couple of months back, alone cannot be an answer to Delhi's travel problems. Maken said: "The onus is on the integration of transport system." The policy change includes giving priority to mass transport.
Maken said: "Delhi's biggest problem is the large number of private vehicles on roads. The idea is to make private car users shift to public and other modes of transport. Also, people used to single or double modes of transport are soon likely to get used to a multi-mode of transport."
An ETB will cost about Rs6-7 million, having more than twice the capacity of a normal bus, while the cost for the implementation of the HCBS will amount to Rs25 million per kilometre. According to transport ministry officials it will take a couple of months for these two projects to be implemented.
The official informed that the traffic intersections will be IT-enabled and the buses will be tracked by a global positioning system (GPS) installed in the bus. It is an advanced vehicle tracking system (AVTS) that will control their movements, time table and passenger load.
The GPS will be aligned with traffic signals such that they will never have to encounter a red signal.
He further informed that the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and RITES have been appointed consultants for the projects. The ministry intends keeping the fare on par with the existing DTC and Blueline buses.
A reason why the capital never managed to have a plan of action regarding public transport was because earlier it was never clear what fuel was to be used. But with the Supreme Court verdict in favour of CNG (compressed natural gas) and against diesel, a specific plan of action has been finally envisaged.
The successful implementation of these plans would hopefully go a long way towards decongesting Delhi's roads, de-polluting the atmosphere and relieving drivers of road rage.
Gulf News 2003
