Bluelines under fire

The enforcement teams of the transport department cracked down on Blueline buses plying illegally in the Capital on Tuesday.

The enforcement teams of the transport department cracked down on Blueline buses plying illegally in the Capital on Tuesday.

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Delhi transport minister Arvinder Singh said more than 30 bluelines plying on different routes without valid permits were impounded. Senior transport officials said action was also taken against buses that had valid permits but were violating the permit conditions.

While Delhi still has 328 Blueline buses with valid permits, only a few buses actually plied on Tuesday. Delhi’s 30 lakh bus commuters largely travelled on state-run DTC buses.

Going on with its plan to phase out bluelines, the transport department phased out more than 500 stage carriage bluelines on January 31. In little more than two months, the department took more than 1,700 Bluelines off Delhi roads.

With the Delhi High Court coming to the rescue of buses with valid permits, officials said only 328 buses are left in Delhi.
“There were very few Bluelines running in Delhi today. Most people travelled by DTC buses. We did not get even a single complaint from any part of the city today,” Singh said.

“We deployed more buses on routes in north, northeast and outer Delhi where most Blueline buses plied. We withdrew some of our buses from routes where the frequency was very high and put them on routes with poorer frequency,” Kumar said.

Meanwhile, on the issue of appealing against the High Court order transport officials said the final decision would be taken once the court's order is received.

“We have not yet received the court's order. We will decide on appealing against the order only after receiving a copy of the order,” a senior transport official said.