New Delhi:
Delhi Government will soon buy a fleet of 600 low floor buses to replace the old buses of Delhi Transport Corporation, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said on Saturday.
The Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) currently operates around 6,500 buses, including 4,000 low-floor buses.
"We will procure 600 low floor buses to replace our old buses," Ms Dikshit said.
The Chief Minister was speaking after launching DTC bus service on a new route connecting Gole Market with RK Puram Sector One.
"We are improving the public transport system to discourage use of private vehicles," she said.
Government plans to increase the number of buses under DTC to 11,000 including buses under the cluster service within next couple of years.
Currently 316 buses are plying under the cluster service being run by private entities.
In 2009, the Delhi government had divided nearly 650 bus routes across the city into 17 clusters -- each comprising profitable and non-profitable routes and decided to give each cluster to a private operator. Four corporate entities were already given contract to operate the services in five clusters.