New Delhi (August 23) Trolleybuses would be whizzing on some Delhi roads by the middle of next year and well before Assembly polls. These buses are being visualised as the main mode of mass transit apart from CNG buses and Metro Rail in the transport action plan which is being drafted. Transport and Power Minister Ajay Maken says these buses would run on separate lanes, free of other buses. In the beginning, these would be confined to a few lanes on a pilot basis. The final shape of this programme would be ready by October 2 when Delhi’s first transport action plan would be unveiled. Meanwhile, a committee headed by Chief Secretary Shailaja Chandra is going into project details.
‘‘The main task before the committee is to calculate cost, the ways to recover it, the implementing agency as well as determine how the system would sustain itself,’’ says Maken. The committee was set up three months ago soon after the proposal was made in the Cabinet. On fares, Maken said the electric buses would be cheap or at least as cheap as Delhi Transport City buses. The pilot project would, however, be totally done by the government.
Maken says the Transport Department had earlier been talking to BHEL who proposed getting the buses through global tender. ‘‘These details are now being thrashed out by the committee, Electric trolley buses are being used in Europe and what Delhi would get would be the latest in technology, Kolkata has trams which run on rails. But these would run on ordinary roads,’’ he said.
‘‘The main intention is to have different fuel modes in Delhi so that there is never any transport hiccups caused by fuel crunch, One reason why Delhi never managed to have a plan of action for public transport was because it was never clear what fuel was to be used, Now that the Supreme Court has made its verdict against diesel, we can have a specific plan of action. And in this, one of the main things we would indicate is new modes of public transport,’’ Ajay Maken said. ‘‘We want different fuel modes in Delhi and hence this is important to the entire plan,’’ he adds.
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