Corporatization of Private Stage Carriage Buses Scheme Private

Client :Transport Department, Govt of NCT of Delhi

Achievements : Increasing coverage and Modernization of Bus Fleet in Delhi

New city route clusters have been tendered out and modern fleet of buses have been deployed on them under unified time table with state owned buses. The standard floor buses (900 mm floor height) are also fitted with hydraulic passenger lift for convenience of differently abled passengers on wheel chair. There are CCTV cameras and panic buttons in these buses as a part of standard fitment for enhanced safety of passengers, especially women.

Additional fleet of AC Low Floor CNG buses have also been introduced.

There are approximately 3310 cluster buses already deployed on about 367 city routes in Delhi by end of F.Y. 2022-2023. Connectivity to rural areas have also been boosted by the new services.

Scope of Work :

Background

Buses are the lifeline of Delhi city, transporting lacs of people daily from one corner to the other. Over the years however, with the increasing income levels, the demand and usage of private motor vehicles has increased thus leading to problems of congestion and pollution. In 2008, there were 5.5 million vehicles in Delhi, the largest number in any city in the world. Nearly 1,000 more are added on a daily basis. This has resulted in a fall in the model share of public transport from 60% in 2001 to 41.5% in 2008 and a rise in the use of private motor vehicles from 27.5% in 2001 to 35.4% in 2008.

Though the buses, with a larger share, continue to be the principal mode of transport for the majority of the people, the demand for it will continue to fall as rising income levels allow more and more people to opt for private motorized vehicles.

To arrest this decline and to encourage people to shift to buses, it was felt by Govt. of NCT of Delhi to provide and strengthen safe, reliable, comfortable and well-integrated bus system.

Earlier System of Buses in Delhi (till F.Y.2010-2011)

Bus services in Delhi were provided by Private Stage Carriage Operators (PSCs), state entity namely Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), which provides connecting services to the metro rail system. The fig 1 below shows the relative strengths of each fleet in the capital.

The Private Stage Carriages were running only on profitable routes whereas almost half of bus routes were not served at all. There were issues of ill maintained fleet and indiscipline in driving. This was contributing in spate of road accidents.

The new bus system under Cluster Scheme of Govt. of NCT of Delhi

Govt. of NCT of Delhi decided to revamp the bus system to provide a reliable, safe and comfortable travel to the citizens. It launched a scheme to corporatize the Private Stage Carriage operation of buses in Delhi and appointed DIMTS as Integrated Mechanism for the Private stage carriage buses corporatization scheme in the F.Y. 2007-2008.

The negative impacts of fragmented ownership were: absence of professional management, lobbying to deploy bus on routes closest to parking place to save on dead runs, poor employment condition of crew etc.

DIMTS worked on revamping the entire existing structure and re-grouped the 657 routes of Delhi into 17 economic units termed as distinct route cluster using modelling tool based on digital data. Each route-cluster is to be served by buses of Delhi Transport Corporation (the state transport corporation) and those owned by corporate entities — the latter being selected by a process of competitive bidding — in a 50:50 ratio. Buses of both entities are to operate on every route under a unified time table (UTT) mandated by the State Transport Authority. This makes for optimal utilization and integration of capacity and assets.

The private entities are awarded the cluster through a competitive bidding process for a period of 10 years in sync with the life of the bus. Each cluster consists of suitable bunch of routes such that competing routes don't overlap across operators. All operators are required to provide a scheduled bus service based on Unified Time Table. 

The Role of Information Technology

The IT solutions implemented make for transparent and objective assessment of the quality and quantum of service delivered and therefore, helps with inputs for continuous improvement of service.

There has been significant improvement in reliability of service, which has made the bus service popular.  The service also obtains regular public feedback on the quality and different aspects of service operations through DIMTS website, the governments Helpline and letters etc.  This feature was completely absent from the erstwhile Blueline System.  The previous system did not have any IT in use applications either for monitoring of operations and ticketing.  This has been effectively introduced under the new system.

In the new system there is a strong reliance upon use of GPS based Automatic Vehicle Location System, Automatic Fare Collection System (AFCS) based on electronic ticketing using Electronic Ticketing Machine with a provision of digital ticketing using DMRC metro card and Bus management system (BMS) with integration of inputs from both AVLS and AFCS.

Therefore, DIMTS has set up state of the art Operations Control Centre (OCC) for live monitoring of operation of buses on each route against its adherence to the Unified Time Table (UTT). An algorithmic software system will calculate penalties and rewards for reliability and frequency. Additional features like the Passenger Information System (PIS) using mobile app called “One Delhi” has helped in reducing the waiting anxiety of the passengers. 

Passenger safety especially women is ensured by live monitoring of the feed of the CCTV cameras in case of use of panic button in the OCC.

Nagpur and Gurugram Bus Operations

Client : NMC Nagpur

• Nagpur Municipal Corporation has awarded contract to DIMTS for Integrated Bus Transport Management Operator for Project Development Services for Public Bus Service in Nagpur Urban Region. DIMTS provides various services & programme management of 360 buses.
• Gurugram Metropolitan City Bus Limited (GMCBL) has awarded DIMTS as Program Management Services for Monitoring and Management of City Bus Service in Gurugram. DIMTS is managing 200 buses, ear marked in Phase I.