Is capital ready to even the odds?

New Delhi: Delhi’s overstrained public transportation system will have to bear additional passenger traffic if the Aam Aadmi Party government brings back its ambitious road-rationing Odd-Even scheme in the capital to combat the rising pollution.

For a city, that is growing by leaps and bounds with population touching the 2 crore mark, a robust public transport system remains a distant reality.

Lack of proper mechanism leaves lakhs of people to rely on private vehicles. According to the official data, the Capital accounts for 27 lakh private cars and 58 lakh two-wheelers.

In the last one year, around 1,000 buses operated by the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) were phased out, and no new buses were added to the existing fleet.

The DTC bus fleet also came down to 4,009 from 6,204. Of these, 300 standard floor buses are in a dilapidated condition, and had a history of breakdowns during operations in the city.

Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling suggesting the city required at least 11,000 orange-coloured buses back, only 1,284 are plying under the cluster bus scheme. Experts feel that it is not just the number of buses, but factors such as the reliability and comfort surrounding the transport system are affecting the commuters in the city.

“The bus system in the city is inefficient and unable to provide proper service. If the government wants people to switch to public transport, it has to ensure that the people have confidence in the system. Apart from the lack of buses, the city also does not have a defined infrastructure, which is very important to ensure that the passengers are in the know of transport facilities operating in the city. The commuters should not be left stranded,” SP Singh of Indian Foundation of Transport Research said.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, which has ridership of around 27 lakh passengers daily, is already grappling with the crowd management issues.

To tackle the rush and increase its capacity, the DMRC had added 258 coaches last year to convert its four and six coach trains into eight coach ones.

At present, the DMRC operates with a fleet of 227 trains, comprising 128 six coaches, 58 eight coaches and 41 four coaches.

A total of 71 trains are operating on the Blue Line, 60 on the Yellow and 29 on the Red Line.

End-mile connectivity is yet another major problem in the city. Only 350 metro feeder buses, as against the required fleet of 1,500, are operating in the city.

The government also failed to regulate e-rickshaws in the city.  The drivers were also found flouting traffic violations.