The last DTC tender, for purchasing 1000, standard-floor buses, had failed in May 2018 due to lack of bidders.
NEW DELHI: The Delhi Transport Corporation floated a tender to purchase 1000 low-floor CNG buses on Friday. In its bid to increase the number of CNG buses in the capital, the corporation strives to purchase 500 AC and 500 Non-AC buses.
DTC claimed that the main issue with procuring more buses was due to several unsuccessful tenders over the years. However, they hope to turn things around within the coming year as new buses start arriving. Transport Minister, Kailash Gahlot informed that while DTC will purchase the buses, there will be a separate clause for maintenance of buses. The manufactures set extremely high rates for the annual maintenance contract. Therefore, it was decided that a separate tender for maintenance work would be created.
An official statement said, “The tender for AMC is being floated separately this time. While there are limited manufacturers of low-floor CNG buses in the business, maintenance work has a lot of competition. We hope that a separate tender would help resolve the issue.”
The new buses come with a warranty period of three years. These low-floor buses confirm to the BS-IV (EURO-IV) norms. The corporation expects to put these buses to service for a period of 12 years.
Additionally, the government has also established four fully-automated driving centres around the national capital. An official statement from the government was put out claiming, “these centres are equipped with with advance technology, including multiple high definition cameras to evaluate applicants against 20 essential driving skills- in line with Central Motor Vehicles Rules. They will be the most advanced driving test centres in the country.”