The Hindu : New Delhi News : Permits of 600 Blueline buses suspended

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Saturday, Jul 07, 2007
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New Delhi

Permits of 600 Blueline buses suspended

Staff Reporter

2,000 more DTC buses will be added in a year, says Chief Minister

Buses operating on sub-contracts would also be cancelled
Short-term, long-term measures to phase out Bluelines soon

NEW DELHI: Moving ahead with its decision to phase out private Blueline buses that have proved to be the biggest killers on the city roads, the Delhi Government on Friday suspended permits of 600 buses and declared that permits of those operating on sub-contracts would also be cancelled.

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, who chaired a high-level meeting on the issue during the day, said: “It has been decided to immediately cancel 600 permits of Blueline buses due to violation of permit rules including non-operation”.

Stating that the State Transport Department would immediately identify and cancel permits of those Blueline buses which are sub-contracted, she said the transport union had assured its cooperation in identifying buses being run on sub-contracts. To bridge the gap, the Chief Minister also announced that the number of Delhi Transport Buses would be increased from 3,000 to 5,000 in a year.

Plan of action

With the Government earlier announcing that the Blueline buses would be phased out, Ms. Dikshit she said: “We are committed to providing a safe, convenient and modern city transport bus system in the Capital.”

Announcing the plan of action, Ms. Dikshit said her Government had decided to take certain short-term and long-term measures to gradually phase out Blueline buses and increase the fleet of DTC buses.

Expression of interest

“The Government would also issue an expression of interest for plying of 1,000 good quality private buses in Delhi in which participation of corporate sector cooperatives would be significant,” she said. Transport Minister Haroon Yusuf said henceforth strict and stringent enforcement would be ensured and drivers asked to prominently display their photo and licence in buses. He said their driving licenses would be punched in case of any violation of rules and they would not be allowed to drive double shift.

Working hours

A mechanism would also be evolved to restrict working hours of the drivers to the permissible limit to avoid accidents due to fatigue. The Minister said the DTC has also been instructed to expedite recruitment of drivers so that adequate number of trained drivers were available for new buses.

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