Running buses not government's job, says Arvind Kejriwal

NEW DELHI: At a time when NGT—as well as Supreme Court—has been emphasizing the need for a robust public transport system to rein in the rising pollution as well as the number of private vehicles on city roads, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal feels running buses is not the government's job.

Kejriwal, who was speaking at an event organized by Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) on Tuesday, said: said Making a case, perhaps, for privatizing Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), Kejriwal argued that if the private sector is involved, more buses would be available. DTC has been unsuccessfully trying to procure 1,380 buses for over a year now.

While DTC has a fleet of around 5,000 buses, the cluster bus system adds another 1,500. Interestingly, while Kejriwal speaks about privatizing DTC, the government's much-touted public-private partnership project - cluster buses - is floundering. The city needs 11,000 buses but the cluster system will now add only 4,400 according to the revised government plans. It was 6,600 more buses earlier.



The chief minister said at the event that the government doesn't have the funds to procure buses. "Where do we have the money for this (procuring 1,000 more buses)," he asked. "The government's job is to make fair rules, to implement them. And if someone breaks the rules, there should be swift punishment," he said, adding "our job should not be to run buses - that should be thrown open to the private sector. If we make it attractive to the private sector, there would be 10,000 buses available rather then just a thousand."

DTC has been trying to buy 1,380 buses for over a year now. Earlier, it had hoped to buy low-floor buses which were then changed to semi-low-floor buses after seeing the lack of response from the manufacturers. Despite various changes being made in the tender conditions, including maintenance parameters, DTC has not been successful in signing a contract. It needs to augment its fleet strength urgently as many of its older buses are headed for the scrapyard.