DTC makes no progress to get new buses; negotiations with Tata Motors not going well: Official

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Transport Corporation's (DTC) efforts to increase its fleet seem to be failing. Senior DTC officials confirmed that negotiations with Tata Motors, which was the only company to have shown interest in its tender for 1,380 buses, are "not going well". "Negotiations are going on. The bus manufacturer wants certain relaxations in the tender conditions."

The DTC has been looking to buy these buses for over a year now. Earlier, it had planned to buy low-floor buses. It then changed the plan and decided to go for semi-low floor buses after seeing the lack of response from the manufacturers. The semi-low floor buses have lower maintenance charges. Despite various changes being made in the tender conditions, including maintenance parameters, DTC has not been successful in closing a contract. It is in urgent need of adding to the existing fleet as many of its older buses are headed for scrap.

As part of the DTC functioning, maintenance of buses is done by the manufacturer itself, or through an authorised agent of the manufacturer. In the current setup, both Tata and Ashok Leyland charge Rs 3 per km for maintenance, which will go up to Rs 12 per km in its 12-year contract with the DTC. The maintenance charge quoted by the manufacturer was considerably higher in the earlier tender, said DTC officials. This was after manufacturers were fined heavily for poor maintenance by the DTC in the past years.

One of the points of contention between vehicle manufacturers and the DTC had been the annual maintenance contract (AMC). The new tender has now been tweaked to make the AMC more lucrative.