Around a thousand public transport buses plying in Delhi will go off the roads in 10 days, if Delhi’s Transport department does not extend their contract. These buses, called Cluster Bus Services, are run on CNG (Compressed Natural Gas). A 10-year contract between Delhi’s Transport department and a private bus-manufacturing company will expire on June 19. The Delhi government has planned to phase out CNG buses and replace them with electric buses, which has been delayed. While senior officials of the transport department are not in favour of extending the contract, the transport minister wants the buses to continue operations until “alternative arrangements” are made. According to internal communications between the department and the minister, officials do not want to extend the contract because the buses lack "quantity" and "quality", and are not in a “good condition”. They further said “the concessionaires are rather trying to draw the government into unnecessary legal controversies”. In a note dated on June 4, the officials further said, the induction of electric buses has been delayed in absence of electrification of depots and non-allotment of depots along with non-approval of prototype and late production by the operators. Hence, transport officials concluded: “Some gap may be there in withdrawal of these CNG buses and the induction of e-buses.” Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot, however, has asked the department “not to phase out the buses” without any “alternate arrangements” to avoid inconvenience to commuters. If the department decides to phase them out, these buses will cease to operate from June 20. “.the Government has been making all out efforts to increase the number of buses with the twin objective, firstly, to increase the commuters' convenience and secondly, encourage people to move. to public transport,’’ Transport Minister Gahlot responded in a note to Commissioner, Transport, Prashant Goyal. According to documents, these 997 buses are currently plying on 109 routes. “.Shortage of buses compounded by hot weather will force the public to turn towards private transport,” Gahlot said. Regarding the delays in electrification of bus depots, the minister said the financial approval for electrification of many depots is yet to be issued. “It takes about 12 to 18 months for the completion of the electrification of a depot. In such a situation, many depots will remain unutilised. However, the department has neither commented upon this issue nor suggested any alternative course of action,” Gahlot said, asking the department to “furnish” this “information immediately”. Sources said three cluster depots have already been shut while seven more will close by next week. The cluster bus drivers and conductors hired by the concessionaire are sitting on a protest in all depots against the shutting down of depots and phasing out of buses. In the note, the transport department further said that “there are also shortcomings/ service lapses on the side of concessionaires like lost kilometres due to drivers' strike, non-adherence to time table, missing bus stops, infractions like dirty buses, over speeding, rash driving etc.” Another official said: “In DTC (Delhi Transport Corporation), buses are phased out after completion of 15 years of operation. Concession Agreements were earlier extended in public interest.” The official further said: “The Clusters too were in arbitration with the Department on similar issues. However, additional conditions were imposed like not paying capital charges for 10 years old buses, etc. so that outgo on the public exchequer is minimised and also to protect the interest of the Department”. As per internal documents of the department, it has received representation for extension of the contract from the concessionaire of three clusters, saying that the buses were “inducted late due to delayed allotment of depots, infrastructure and have not completed the 10 years of life as per the agreement”. The Transport department, however, termed the claims of the concessionaire as a “bogey”. A few months ago, 600 overaged cluster buses were phased out. Saying that the provision to extend the contract is their “sole discretion”, the transport department officials questioned the “quantity and quality of services extended by concessionaires”.
