Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday announced a premium bus aggregator scheme to encourage the middle class and upper middle class passengers to switch to public transport.Addressing a press conference here, Kejriwal said the scheme will be notified following Delhi Lieutenant Governor (L-G) V.K. Saxena's approval of some small changes he has brought to the previously approved scheme by the L-G.
"When the metro started in Delhi, there were many people who stopped using their private vehicles and started using the metro. But as the metro trains started getting crowded, they again went back to using their own cars and scooters...This leads to more pollution and traffic in Delhi," the CM said.
Generally, people from the lower middle class and economy classes travel in buses but with this scheme, people from the middle class and upper middle class will also opt for public transport, Kejriwal said.
Under the new premium bus scheme, the aggregators who take licenses will have to run air-conditioned buses with not less than nine seats. In these buses, standing will not be allowed. The buses will have WiFi, CCTV, and GPS facilities. Only digital bookings and payments will be allowed in the buses.
The aggregators will be required to maintain a fleet of 25 buses. And from January 2025, all buses will have to be electric.Under this new premium scheme the routes for these buses will be decided based on the market demand and the aggregators will just have to inform the Transport Department of the routes they decide to add.
Kejriwal further added that the fares will be dynamic and not less than the peak fare of DTC air-conditioned buses. These buses will not compete with DTC buses.Kejriwal further said that the Centre's amendments to the Motor Vehicles Act (MVA) in 2019 has facilitated the scheme the AAP government has been trying to bring in since 2016.