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Delhi govt to roll out rules to decongest all ISBTs

Sep 09, 2024 05:42 AM IST

The decision regarding the same was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by lieutenant governor VK Saxena and attended by transport minister Kailash Gahlot along with senior bureaucrats from various departments

Mandatory FASTag for interstate buses, shorter time slot for parking and charging bus operators for longer parking time are the measures that the transport department will introduce at the three Inter State Bus Termini (ISBTs) in the Capital in an attempt to decongest the facilities and areas around them, besides increasing utilisation of space and resources.

Delhi has three operational ISBTs at Kashmere Gate, Anand Vihar and Sarai Kale Khan. (Sanchit Khanna/HT PHOTO)
Delhi has three operational ISBTs at Kashmere Gate, Anand Vihar and Sarai Kale Khan. (Sanchit Khanna/HT PHOTO)

The decision regarding the same was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by lieutenant governor VK Saxena and attended by transport minister Kailash Gahlot along with senior bureaucrats from various departments, officials of LG secretariat said on Sunday.

Delhi has three operational ISBTs at Kashmere Gate, Anand Vihar and Sarai Kale Khan. These cater to buses coming from neighbouring states and Union territories of Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand among others.

To achieve greater efficiency in terms of number of buses operating at the ISBTs, the transport department has been directed undertake a makeover at the termini, besides reducing turnaround time of interstate buses from the existing 45-60 minutes to 30 minutes for faster circulation of buses, officials said.

In a major change, a senior LG secretariat official said that equal parking rates will be charged from government as well as private buses, and parking time will also be reduced.

Additionally, only buses with FASTag stickers will be allowed to enter the ISBTs to eliminate the need of manual tracking.

FASTag is an electronic toll collection system that employs Radio Frequency Identification technology for making toll and parking payments while the vehicle is in motion directly from a linked account.

The LG secretariat officials said that the changes will soon be notified for all the three ISBTs.“Once notified, the new norms will not only ensure efficiency in the functioning and operation of the ISBTs, but also enable the facility to function at its optimum capacity,” the official said.

For instance, the Kashmere Gate ISBT has the capacity to handle 3,000 buses a day but only caters to 1,700 buses. The official quoted above attributed this “underutilisation” to rate differences between government and private buses, poor management of parking bays, bus staff using terminals as resting places and other issues such as staggered circulation due to extended turnaround time which leads to traffic snarls outside the ISBT on Outer Ring Road.

“Under new rates, the private as well as government interstate buses will be paying the same amount of fee for parking”, the official said.Currently, private buses are required to pay more than the government ones — this leads to unauthorised parking and boarding of passengers on roads outside the terminus, resulting in traffic jams as well as revenue loss to state-run buses, the official added.

Giving details about the parking time slot system, officials said that the buses will be provided with a fixed parking time of 25 minutes at a cost of 500 per trip. A delay of every five minutes will lead to proportionate penalties — the bus operators will have to pay 550 for 25-30 minutes, 750 for 30-35 minutes; 1,000 for 35-40 minutes, 1,300 for 40-45 minutes, and 350 per minute will be added beyond the parking time of 45 minutes.

“These charges and penalties will be levied through FASTag. Buses without FASTags will not be permitted inside the terminus. A facility will be provided outside the terminus complex for buses not having a FASTag account to pay and get one before entering,” the LG official said.

In the case of the Kashmere Gate ISBT, these changes are likely to help decongestion of the arterial Ring Road and the road from ISBT towards Tees Hazari. Officials said that it will also significantly improve traffic flow across a large part of central Delhi, including Civil Lines, Tees Hazari, St Stephens Hospital, Sadar Bazar, Pul Bangash, Sabzi Mandi and Azad Market.

Last month, LG Saxena had inspected the Maharana Pratap ISBT at Kashmere Gate and directed the transport department to undertake these changes.

“Inspected the ISBT at Kashmere Gate and took stock of the passenger amenities and operational processes of buses from the terminal. The deteriorating infrastructure and amenities at the ISBT that caters to nearly 3000 buses a day is worrisome. Directed the transport department for complete makeover of the terminal and to reduce the turnaround time of inter-state buses from the existing 45-60 minutes to 30 minutes for faster circulation and improved handling of buses,” Saxena said in a post on X after his visit on August 31.

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