DTC’s fleet of smoking buses

Delhi’s snazzy green low-floor buses were meant to be the symbols of a modern city’s modern transport system. But in the past month, they have acquired the reputation of a fire hazard on wheels.

Delhi’s snazzy green low-floor buses were meant to be the symbols of a modern city’s modern transport system. But in the past month, they have acquired the reputation of a fire hazard on wheels.

HT Image

On Saturday, one of these ‘state-of-the-art’ buses came to a smoking halt after its rear wheels got jammed — the seventh such incident in 25 days.

The low-floor buses, each costing Rs 55 lakh, will constitute the main fleet of the Capital’s bus transport by replacing the private Blueline buses. There are 800 low-floor buses running on Delhi’s streets and their number by March 2010 is expected to be more than 3,700.

But the frequency with which they are catching fire or developing some glitch or the other puts a question mark on their reliability.

The bus that got stalled at about 10.30 p.m. Saturday was on its way to Uttam Nagar, west Delhi, but stopped at Pankha Road. The driver evacuated the passengers safely through the front exit and there were no injuries.

"There was no major problem with the bus, only a small mechanical issue, which the driver himself attended to and the bus was back on the road within 15 minutes," said Delhi Transport Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely.

The Delhi government has already instituted an inquiry into all incidents involving the Delhi Transport Corporation's low-floor buses, which run on compressed natural gas.

It has also fined Tata Motors, the manufacturers, Rs 4 crore for "not properly" maintaining the buses. Furthermore, the government has decided to withhold a payment of Rs 150 crore to the Tatas and warned of legal action if corrective steps are not taken.

Tata Motors, which is responsible for the maintenance of the fleet supplied by it, has blamed the accidents on bad road conditions.

"There will always be some maintenance issue with two to three per cent of these buses," Lovely said. "We have asked Tata Motors to check their entire fleet within a month."