DTC goes the Metro way, buses every 5 min

Taking a leaf out of the Delhi Metro’s book, the DTC will start plying buses at regular intervals of five to 10 minutes.

Taking a leaf out of the Delhi Metro’s book, the DTC will start plying buses at regular intervals of five to 10 minutes.

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The service, which will benefit 1.4 million people daily, will be initially implemented on 29 important bus routes between 7am and 11pm. The Delhi Transport Corporation will increase the size of the fleet on these routes from 700 to 1,150. Currently, the DTC does not follow a timetable.

The 29 routes chosen by the DTC will cover the ring road, outer ring road and roads connecting important destinations such as the airport, railway stations, bus terminals, major markets and residential colonies.

The plan was submitted to transport minister Ramakanta Goswami on Tuesday. "Route rationalisation of DTC buses is the need of the hour. We will implement it as soon as possible," Goswami said.

A joint committee — comprising the Delhi integrated multi-modal transit system, the traffic police and the transport department — will work on the plan, with an aim to tackle the public transport problems in outer and east Delhi. As many as 488 routes will ultimately be covered.

Traffic cops will also install public information systems at bus stops on these routes so passengers know how long they have to wait before the next bus arrives.

The last DTC route rationalisation plan, implemented in 1986, was a disaster and had to be scrapped.