Crackdown on buses for flouting rules in Delhi

NEW DELHI: The enforcement wing of Delhi government’s transport department has decided to crack down on public transport buses for rash driving and not stopping at designated ‘bus boxes’.
“We have been getting a lot of complaints about buses not stopping at designated stops or sometimes not stopping at bus stops at all. We have received complaints of rash driving also,” a senior transport department official said.“We will come down heavily on drivers not stopping buses at the designated bus box. Strict action will be taken,” state transport minister Kailash Gahlot said.
Delhi Transport Corporation recently launched a mobile application, which can be used by commuters to complain against any problem they face in a DTC bus. There is, however, no such application for the 1,675 buses run under the cluster scheme by the Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System.
Gahlot said the government will first see how the DTC app rolls out and, if possible, it will be adopted for the cluster buses too.
Data from transport department show that the cluster buses have turned into the latest menace on the streets due to rash driving and speeding. The transport department has an Operations Control Centre from where all public transport vehicles, including buses, are tracked.
“We received complaints and started tracking those buses and found that instead of the prescribed limit of 40 kmph, most buses were plying at above 60 kmph,” a transport department official said.