Thursday, July 29, 2010

911 More Low Floor Buses before Games

The Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) told the Delhi high court that 911 more low-floor buses would be put on the road before the Commonwealth Games to address the traffic problem in the national capital.

Appearing before a division bench of Justices A K Sikri and Reva Khetrapal, DTC said it would soon introduce more than 900 buses which would increase the strength of its fleet to 6,500.

The court asked the city government to chalk out a plan to address the transport problem in the city in view of the Commonwealth Games to be held in October even as it allowed a four month extension to the government to phase-out Bluelines and replace them with its new fleet.

‘‘We have the Commonwealth Games coming in two months. Do you think from that angle? Many people would be coming to the city,’’ the court said, when senior advocate Kailash Vasudev, who is assisting the court, pointed out that government has failed to form a policy to tackle the problem of shortage of Blue line buses.

The amicus complained that by the Supreme Court order there should be minimum 10,000 buses in the city, but government has failed to increase the number of buses.

The court was hearing a matter in which it had taken suo motu cognizance following an accident involving a Blue line bus in October 2008 in which 8 people were killed at Badarpur area.

The court had directed the phase-out of Blue line buses, after which the city government launched low floor buses last year. It had also directed the city government to frame guidelines for erring drivers, bus operators and owners for violating traffic rules.

Meanwhile, HC also asked the government to place a fresh status report before it on the progress made in installing GPRS in buses as a means to check the speed at which it is being driven and to check accidents.

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