No abatement in commuter woes, 300 Bluelines could run tomorrow

New Delhi, July 23 (UNI) It was another day of woes for the Delhi commuters with the nearly 3000-strong fleet of the DTC and 712 blueline buses cleared by the state government for operation proving insufficient to meet the passenger load in the city.

Though another 300 Bluelines, which were cleared by the state department following its checking drive, are expected to join the city fleet tomorrow, it could be of little solace for Delhiites with 75 per cent of the 4000-strong Bluelines fleet still off the roads.

Meanwhile, despite the DTC mobilising its maximum strength of close to 3000 buses on the city roads to meet the needs of the public and 712 Bluelines supplementing the public transport fleet, the commuters continued to be a harried lot with heavy rush being witnessed in DTC buses in East Delhi and North Delhi as well as at ITO.

The harried commuters, many of whom had to take autowheelers to reach their destinations due to the DTC buses being heavily crowded, blamed the state government for abrupt withdrawal of the buses without making any alternate arrangements for public transport.

With buses ''at a premium'', Metro stations witnessed a heavy rush of commuters. In fact, in the absence of blueline buses, the Metro trains running on all three lines - Central Secretariat to Vishwavidyalaya, Shahdara to Rithala and Indraprastha to Dwarka Subcity - witnessed unprecedented rush.

However, addressing reporters after a Cabinet meeting, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit expressed confidence that with fitness being granted to more Blueline' buses the situation on roads would improve gradually. She added that checking of all the blueline buses would be completed within the next few days.

On the Commuters' woes, she said her Government wanted to ply buses of neighbouring states' roadways buses which was not becoming possible because of non-availability of CNG buses with neighbouring states.

The state Government's drive for checking of the Bluelines' buses for satisfaction of various norms continued to progress at a slow pace today with just 345 buses checked till 1700 hours, of which 196 were cleared for operation. These 196 buses will join the city fleet tomorrow.

UNI