Without public transport, Delhi may never be able to address its twin problems of air pollution and traffic congestion. But it has failed to meet its massive demand for buses simply because there aren’t enough depots.Millennium Park Bus Depot where 800 buses are parked will be moved in the wake of a high court order to relocate it from Yamuna riverbed. Meanwhile, Delhi Integrated MultiModal Transit System doesn’t have any parking space for 1,000 buses. Delhi Development Authority has not managed to allocate any land to them yet. After Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) came to power, the government decided in January to move the 50-acre Millennium Park depot to secure the Yamuna riverbed.“It’s a catchment area for water which cannot be meddled with,“ chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had said. But now delay in providing adequate space for buses by DDA has irked a section of environmentalists. Their stand is contrary to other activists who have been pushing for the relocation of Millennium Depot.

Environmentalist Sunita Narain feels bus depots should be prioritized over other issues. “The Millennium Bus De pot should not be shifted. A bus depot is needed; adverse impacts on the riverbed can be mitigated,“ she said. DDA has identified three places in Rohini Sector 4, Karkardooma and Institute of Driving Training and Research in Sarai Kale Khan. But relocation has been taking very long.

DTC officials claim that developing infrastructure in these three newly-allotted areas will mean massive investment in terms of both money and time.

Meanwhile, DIMTS has not been able to procure 1,000 air conditioned and non-air conditioned cluster buses as DDA hasn’t allocated any land to them.

“They have been promising it but nothing has been handed to us even though buses should be a priority . It’s time we should start looking at multilevel parking options for buses.
Delhi should also pay attention to safe infrastructure for bus stops and traffic calming measures near them,“ an official from DIMTS said.

DDA claims it doesn’t have enough land for bus depots.
“Allocating land to DTC for relocating Millennium Depot is taking long as we have to change land use. As for more land for DIMTS, we can only look for small patches of land–not big ones,“ a senior DDA official said.

Anumita Roychowdhury of CSE’s Clean Air Programme said, “It’s a very serious problem. Delhi has to find a way to share depot space efficiently and develop infrastructure like some depots in Bangalore so that more buses can be accommodated in them. We also need to explore efficient parking structures,“ she said.

First among the violations is that most of the private bus operators, who took contract carriage permit, completely violate the norm. According to the contract carriage permit, the operator should transport a group of passengers from one stage to a fixed destination without allowing any passengers in and out of the bus in the middle of journey between the starting and ending points. But, a majority of the bus operators pick up the passengers for filling up vacant seats.

Similarly, about 50 per cent buses operated to various parts from Tirupati do not have the prescribed mechanical condition and other tools like fire extinguishers. The norm of the presence of two drivers in long journey buses, more or less remained on the RTA rule books as no private bus plying between Tirupati and Hyderabad having such a facility.

“Hardly it takes 10 hours for reaching Hyderabad from Tirupati and we don’t think there is a need for additional driver,” said a private bus operator on the condition of anonymity.

When asked a transport department official over the violation of the norms by private bus operators, he said that they are limited to converting crime into revenue. “Following the mishap in Mahbubnagar district, we swung into action and are levying fine on private bus operators for flouting norms, which is nothing but using such incidents as a source of revenue generation.”

Saying that unlike the forest and excise Acts, the Motor Vehicle Atc (MV Act) does not have authority to confiscate the vehicles flouting norms, he added that as per the MV Act they are only permitted to seize a vehicle for violation and will have to release the same after collecting some money in the form of fine. But, in case of the forest and excise Acts, the question of releasing the seized vehicles will not arise, he said and sought such ruling in the MV Act. As the Volvo bus will will cost at least Rs one crore, no owner will dare to violate the prescribed norm as they don’t want to loose their vehicle, he observed.

Though, it is not at all a financial burden to place fire extinguishers and hammers in side the bus,  which are required tools in case of emergency, the operators adopt negligent attitude due to lack of serious punishment, said another official.

Admitting that the transport department is not in a stage to take up drives at regular intervals, the officials attributed it to the staff crunch. As we have to deal with office work like issuing licenses, registrations and other tasks, we are only limited to take such drives only on some occasions, they said.

When contacted the Tirupati regional transport officer (RTO) MSSB Prasad, he said that about 50 per cent of buses do not have required conditions as well as flouting the norms. Particularly, on weekends, private bus operators are plying unconditioned buses. To cash the passengers rush on these days, they are bringing up the substandard buses on to the roads playing havoc with the passengers lives, he said.

Stating that they are taking up raids on the private buses time to time, he said that they are going to organise an awareness meeting soon to drivers of private buses.

On the lines of flights, where the air-hostess explains the passengers about the emergency exits and availability of balloons and parachutes, the bus drivers should also explain the passengers about the emergency windows, hammers and how to use them during emergency before starting journey, he said adding that the proposed awareness meet is aimed to deal with such issues.

Source-http://newindianexpress.com

Chennai: Tamil Nadu has launched ‘small bus’ service to connect suburbs with railway stations and bus stands in the city. Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa flagged off the service with a fleet of 50 small buses.

Passengers will find the 27-seater small bus or mini bus an alternative to share autos and vans. To begin with the services will cover places such as Chromepet, Guindy, Vadapalani and Moolakadai. Jayalalithaa also launched 610 new buses to be operated across the State. The Chief Minister said the State Government has earmarked Rs 1,026 crore to buy 6,000 new buses and half of them have been purchased.

To meet the increasing diesel cost, the State Government will allot Rs 500 crore this financial year to the Transport Department as against Rs 200 crore last year, she said. The Department is finding new ways to generate revenue. For instance, it earned Rs 28.13 crore from advertisements displayed in buses.

The parcel service in buses earned Rs 44.21 lakh and highway eateries earned Rs 4.67 crore. At the function, she gave pension benefits to 25 retired transport employees and sanctioned Rs 257 crore of pension benefits to other retired department employees.

The State Government plans to set up a second water plant at Gummidipoondi for the Amma Mineral water scheme. Under the scheme, which was launched last September, one litre water bottle is sold at Rs 10 to passengers travelling in long distances buses.

Source-http://news.in.msn.com