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Journalism of Courage
The long pending project of constructing 1,397 bus que shelters in the Capital will finally start in the upcoming financial year as the Delhi government has allocated Rs 75 crore towards it, which is 150 times higher than the previous year.
The construction of these shelters is one of long pending projects of the Delhi transport department awaiting since 2016-17. “The budget has increased and the transport department has got a good share this year. This will help expedite several transport infrastructure projects,” said a government official.
Earlier, the Delhi Transport Infrastructure and Development Corporation (DTIDC), which looks at the infrastructure of bus depots, terminals and shelters, was handling the bus que shelter project and invited bids at least three times but failed to attract bidders. “They bidders refused saying the government wants big in a small budget and this happened at least five times,” said an official.
Following which the government in 2018 conducted a design competition for developing “modern and high tech” state of art bus que shelters in Delhi. However, the project was again delayed and later was handed over to the Public Works Department (PWD).
The city is finally going to get modern bus stops with CCTV cameras, GPS tracker, panic buttons for the safety of women and children, announcements about the bus arrival and departure for visually impaired, LED automatic lights, and ramps for the physically disabled this year.
The transport department started work on two bus shelters on a pilot basis in October last year near IP depot. Earlier, Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said that after successfully constructing the sample bus shelters, they will start the work on the remaining ones.
Officials said bus shelters in Delhi are in a bad condition at several places and are constructed in undesignated places like at the end of flyovers or on the sides of bus stops. People are often seen risking their lives to board a bus at several places.
The transport department further got an outlay of Rs 9,539, 13 per cent share of the total budget which is Rs 145 crore than previous years.
The transport department received the lion’s share of the budget allocated to schemes and projects. It got a 20 per cent share of the Rs 43,600 crore set aside for the establishment of projects and schemes.
Further, Rs 280 crore was earmarked for marshals in buses, Rs 250 crore to continue the facility of providing free travel to women in DTC and cluster buses. Delhi currently has 7,003 buses in its fleet.
