No staff, so cluster bus service fails to roll out

Sunday, Feb 13, 2011




The Delhi government's much-hyped corporatization of buses refuses to take off. After delays over procurement of buses, now the absence of conductors for the fleet seems to have stuck the launch. Officials in the transport department said the fare collection staff – the conductors — were to be hired by the Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS) along with providing the parking space for the first cluster. Neither has been made available yet.

Admitted a senior DIMTS official, "The tender was floated last week for hiring a firm that will provide the manpower for fare collection. The RFP will be decided by February 15 and it will take about a week to 10 days before the manpower is ready to be deployed." Incidentally, the parking space, including the service area, in the Millennium Park Depot which will be used by the first cluster service is still under construction. Sources said the work is expected to get over in another week's time. Added a senior transport official, "The cluster, which will start on south Delhi routes, will now be launched by this month's end, though it could get delayed to March."

The delay in the launch of the cluster service comes in the wake of the transport department scrambling to get the corporatization scheme off the ground. Delhi's transport minister, Arvinder Singh, has been consistently claiming the cluster would be launched "soon", even as more than 800 Blueline buses went off the roads. The first cluster was supposed to have been launched in January, which was thereafter delayed to first week of February.

Original news source http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/No-staff-so-cluster-bus-service-fails-to-roll-out/articleshow/7483686.cms