New Delhi

1,000 Blueline buses already off Delhi roads: Minister

NEW DELHI: Transport Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely informed the Delhi Assembly on Wednesday that the number of Blueline buses plying on the Capital’s roads has come down from around 3,800 in July 2008 to about 2,800 now. Also, he denied that the low-floor buses for Delhi had been purchased at a higher cost. Responding to a statement by Leader of Opposition V.K. Malhotra who said that Delhi had not been able to make use of funds available under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission for purchasing new buses, Mr. Lovely said as per JNNURM norms buses have to be purchased from some select vendors. He said the Delhi Government had already placed orders for buses with these vendors, who include Tata and Ashok Leyland, and the orders are so big that supply of all the buses is not likely to be completed by 2010. Since Prof. Malhotra had also raised the issue of Blueline phase-out and charged that these buses were still plying, Mr. Lovely noted that when the meeting was convened by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in July 2008 in which a decision on phasing out these buses was taken, there used to be about 3,800 such buses on the roads. Now the figure has come down to 2,800, he said.

The Minister also allayed the BJP leader’s fear about low-floor buses being bought at a high cost by saying that Delhi’s low-floor buses were far superior as they possess features that allow for automatic transmission, automatic ticketing and even installation of global positioning system.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu