Odd-even car policy: 6,000 additional buses to be deployed in Delhi

New Delhi: Gearing up to roll out the ambitious odd-even scheme, Delhi government on Thursday said an additional fleet of 6000 buses will be deployed to enhance public transport besides increasing frequency of metro trains and allowing more autos on the roads. A high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also decided to mark “separate bus lanes” across all arterial roads in the city by December 25. Motorists obstructing movement of buses in these lanes will be penalised. [caption id=“attachment_2535158” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption] PWD Minister Satyendar Jain said the AAP government has decided to strictly implement National Green Tribunal’s order to slap fine of Rs 5,000 against officials concerned including park in-charges if burning of leaves and garbage was detected in their areas. Burning of garbage and leaves have been found to be a major source of air pollution in the city. The Delhi government is also in talks with the Railways for improvement frequency of trains running between Delhi and nearby cities of NCR, said Jain, adding the Delhi Metro has assured the government to operate metro services at peak frequency from January 1 when the odd-even scheme will be rolled out for 15 days, initially. The meeting was attended by all Delhi ministers, top officials of Traffic Police and representatives of all departments and agencies concerned. “We will run 6,000 buses as per cluster system. The drivers will be hired by the bus owners while DTC will arrange for conductors and decide the route,” Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai said. The 4,000 buses will be “general” buses where some seats will be reserved for women commuters while 2,000 buses to be taken from 2,700 schools after their duty hours will have 50 per cent seats reserved for women, he said. He said the strength of buses in the city will increase to 12,000 from existing 6,000. The Transport Minister said rules are being relaxed to allow more autos on the road. Explaining the scheme, he said if a driver owns an auto, as per fresh norms he can give it to someone else to operate it. As per existing rules, only permit holder of a specific auto can ply the vehicle. “We will launch the first stage of Puchho app tomorrow which will help people hire autos for commuting in case they are covered by the odd-even scheme,” he said. The app will be launched for public on 25 December after which it could be downloaded through smartphones. “We will talk to Railway Minister for increasing frequency of trains. We want to tell people of Delhi that the entire policy and other related aspects of odd-even scheme will be available before 25 December and there is no need to worry,” he said. PTI