Bus Shortage Punctures Odd-Even Drive

As Delhi Govt fails to buy buses for years, polluting 2-wheelers have a free run & commuters suffer under current car curbs

- Kumar Kunal

Here's a shocker from the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), the highly polluted Capital’s government-run bus service: It has not added a bus, not one, to its fleet for almost a decade. This one fact more than evens out all other traffic related pollution control measures being implemented now by the AAP government.

According to an estimate, Delhi requires around 15,000 buses to cater to its transport needs. This figure holds utmost importance, at a time when the AAP government has implemented its much-hyped Odd Even scheme to curb dangerous levels of pollution. Vehicles in the city contribute almost 40 per cent of the total air pollution, according to an estimate.

The 10-day scheme was launched to reduce the number of private vehicles from the streets. But the irony is that the Delhi government instead had to exempt two-wheelers as its public transport system, which mainly constitutes DTC and cluster buses, was unable to bear the burden. Two-wheelers constitute around 60 per cent of the total vehicular burden, which means they are the biggest contributor to pollution.

Currently, around 5,500 buses, including cluster ones, are operational on city routes, which are almost one-third of the requirement.