Tata, Ashok Leyland promise to supply low-floor buses on time

Ashok Leyland and Tata Motors on Tuesday informed the Delhi High Court that they would abide by their schedule to deliver low-floor buses to the Delhi Transport Corporation.

Ashok Leyland and Tata Motors on Tuesday informed the Delhi High Court that they would abide by their schedule to deliver low-floor buses to the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC).

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Tata Motors informed the court that it would supply 150 low-floor buses to DTC by February 15.

The company further submitted that it would hand over another lot of 200 buses by the end of this month.

Ashok Leyland submitted it would supply 140 buses in the next two weeks and also said it would supply an equal number of buses to DTC every month as per its agreement with the Delhi Transport Corporation.

The court had on January 20 warned Ashok Leyland that their contract with the government may have to be cancelled if they did not supply buses within the stipulated time.

The court's direction came during a hearing on a matter in which it had taken suo motu cognisance following an accident involving a Blueline bus in October 2008 in which eight people were killed at the Badarpur area.

The court had directed the phase out of Blueline buses after which the city government launched low-floor buses last year.

The court had also directed the city government to frame guidelines for erring drivers, bus operators and owners for violating traffic rules.

Meanwhile, the division bench comprising Justice Vikramjit Sen and Justice Manmohan Singh directed the Delhi government to file an affidavit stating whether it had taken any decision on semi-low floor buses.