Delhi: 10 years on, DTC plans to restart interstate bus services

NEW DELHI: Delhi Transport Corporation is planning to reintroduce its once popular interstate bus services, which were discontinued almost a decade ago.
The corporation had regular bus services to neighbouring states of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, etc, but these were discontinued by 2010 as DTC’s fleet switched entirely to CNG. Since CNG was not readily available in other states, it made long-distance travel almost impossible.
“We operated the popular interstate bus services and in fact, most commuters preferred DTC buses over other state transport corporations,” said a senior DTC official. These buses connected the capital to cities like Jaipur, Chandigarh, Udaipur, Shimla, Haridwar, Chamba, Dharamshala, Ganganagar, Pathankot, Kanakpur (near Indo-Nepal border), etc. “However, the services started coming down from 2004 as DTC’s diesel buses were eventually phased out. Unless we operated diesel=run buses, it was impossible to carry out interstate transport as CNG was not available in the neighbouring states at that time,” he added.
“The interstate services were also a big revenue generator for DTC. However, due to unavailability of CNG stations in other states, we limited our services to nearby areas such as Meerut and Hapur,” the official said.
DTC officials said that unlike 2010, CNG is now available in neighbouring states, albeit the number of filling stations is nowhere close to the network that Indraprastha Gas Ltd has in the NCR. “In the first phase, we plan to reintroduce interstate services to cities like Haridwar, Agra, Chandigarh, Meerut etc, which are within 300 kms from Delhi and where CNG stations are available on the way,” the corporation official said.
“If we get an approval from Delhi government, we might also request NGT to allow us to operate diesel-run buses on interstate routes because diesel buses from other states do come to Delhi. These buses are run on fixed corridor and are not allowed to pick or drop passengers from Delhi border till the interstate bus terminal. DTC can also follow a similar arrangement,” he added.
At present, buses from neighbouring states freely travel from Delhi and pick up passengers with no competition at all from DTC. “It is not just about revenue, but DTC, like any other state transport corporation, should have interstate services. We have the mandate, the permit and reciprocal agreements with neighbouring states but we can’t run interstate buses. We are planning to change this,” he said.