Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit flagged off First Batch of 50 Non-air conditioned Orange Busses

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit flagged off on 5 May 2011 the first batch of 50 non-air conditioned orange-coloured buses that are part of the first cluster.

The cluster service introduced will significantly improve public transport facilities in Delhi. The first cluster, operated by Star Bus Pvt Ltd, will bring in a total of 231 buses including 20 air-conditioned buses plying on 32 routes in South Delhi.

The new buses will be equipped with GPS devices so that their movement and geographic location are tracked by the automatic vehicle location system (AVLS) on real-time basis. Also electronic ticketing machines (ETM) are being planned to be used on these buses in place of printed tickets as part of the automatic fare collection system (AFCS), which will include smartcard passes. The busses will have temperature reader, clock, electronic display board and CCTV cameras and are Euro-IV compliant.

The new buses will be equipped with GPS devices so that their movement and geographic location are tracked by the automatic vehicle location system (AVLS) on real-time basis. Electronic ticketing machines (ETM) are planned to be used on these buses in place of printed tickets as part of the automatic fare collection system (AFCS), which will include smartcard passes.

An Operations Control Centre which is already functional in the ISBT, Kashmere Gate premises will receive real-time data feeds from AVLS and the fare collection system.

In 2009, the Delhi government divided nearly 650 bus routes across the city into 17 clusters, each comprising profitable and non-profitable routes, and decided to give each cluster to a private operator. Three corporate entities have already been given contracts to operate the services in five clusters.

The Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) currently operates around 6,500 buses which include 4000 low-floor buses. The DTC will operate 40 per cent buses in every cluster while the private entity will operate the remaining 60 per cent buses.