NEW DELHI: The Delhi government is going to launch ‘Connect Delhi Initiative’ on Wednesday to prepare a plan for major changes in the public transport system, officials said. The initiative will carry out a holistic planning exercise covering all public transport to ensure all areas of Delhi are connected. For the first time, a large-scale scientific study is being conducted with the roots of all public service weekly, including DTC, cluster, RTV, rural service, according to which the bus routes will be designed.
Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot, who was present on the occasion to launch the initiative, said through this initiative, the government hopes to build a transport system that is affordable yet efficient. “People always complain about waiting for a bus for hours or unavailability of transport in their area. Delhi has approximately 460 routes and despite that, the demand for more transport is increasing.
“I hope, through this study, we will be able to figure out how to provide every person some kind of transport within 15-20 minutes and that too in 500 meters of radius,” he added.
In this initiative, the Delhi Government will include Transport Department, DTC, DMRC, DIMTS. The study aims to provide people with some public transport within 500 meters of their home. When people get public transport easily, they will also reduce the use of their cars. The Connect Delhi Initiative is aimed at preventing the problem of increasing pollution in the city.
A senior government official said that the Roots would be designed in such a way that there would be no public service in every corner in Delhi. DMRC will also give tips on the roots of Metro Feeder buses keeping in mind the last mile connectivity. This launch will be launched on Wednesday. On that day, transport experts will also keep their suggestions in a workshop and those suggestions will be included in the study report. The government says that there has been no major scientific study of public transport routes for the last several decades and the routes of buses are fixed on the old roads. The result is that there are several buses going on one route after the other and some routes are where the number of buses is very low. Due to the lack of public service, people do not even use the metro. Bus operators have also been demanding to redefine the roots. The spokesperson of STA Operators Integration Forum, Shyamlal Gola, says that the public service users’ roots should be prepared in such a way that there is a uniform availability of buses everywhere. At present, in many places in Delhi, there is a 5-5 kind of bus service and there is no service anywhere.
Delhi government created a committee
For this scheme, the Delhi government has also constituted a high level leveling committee of about 10 members, whose chairman is a transport minister. In this committee, DTC, DMRC, will also be the head of Demits. At the same time, 4 to 5 transport experts will also be there, which will give the government some opinion on the preparation of new roots. DIMTS will complete the scientific study by September and after that, the study report will come to this committee. The committee will take a decision on the report and the changes will be implemented. The Delhi government has also done a pilot project in Najafgarh zone and there has been studying on the other public services related to the roots of the bus. It will also be told in the study that new bus terminals are needed in different areas of Delhi, how many new bus depots are to be made and how many buses are needed.
New buses will be taken into account, ready to report
The Delhi government is also preparing to bring new buses and the routes of new buses will also be included in this report. At present Delhi have 3750 DTC and 1650 buses in the cluster scheme. Apart from this, the number of RTV buses is 800. 272 Metro Feeder Buses, 632 Eco-Friendly Buses, 600 Fit Service and 101 Maxi Cabs. Apart from this, there are about 5000 rural services in operation. Based on this report, which will be completed by September, there will be necessary changes in the routes, new routes will be ready, the frequency of buses will be increased on some routes.
On the occasion, World Resources Institute CEO, O.P. Agarwal, DMRC MD Mangu Singh, DTC MD Manoj Kumar, Varsha Joshi — secretary-cum-commissioner (Transport), Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD), and DIMTS CEO M. Ramsekhar were also present.