Delhi government approves scheme for premium bus service

New Delhi: The Delhi government has approved a scheme for a premium bus service that aims at reducing intracity usage of private vehicles and help reduce pollution, officials said on Monday.

The government uploaded the draft of the Delhi Motor Vehicles Licensing of Aggregator (Premium Buses) Scheme, 2023 on its website in August and sought public feedback.

The city government hopes to encourage the middle and upper-middle classes to switch to public transport through the scheme. According to the scheme, a licence holder shall ensure that no premium bus shall be engaged or acquired with a registration date beyond three years from the date of notification of the scheme.

“Subsequently, induction of any new Premium bus, the prevailing emission norms, BS-VI must be compliant, either Air-Conditioned CNG or electric buses. After January 1, 2025 the induction of only electric buses shall be allowed, no CNG-operated bus even if having BS-VI compliance shall be allowed to be inducted under this scheme,” it said.

The scheme mandates that an aggregator shall take measures to ensure the safety and security of women passengers and provide a rapid response mechanism, including a panic button on its mobile and web-based applications that should be functional at all times and have modalities of API-based integration with law enforcement agencies for prompt redressal of complaints. It permits dynamic pricing provided that the base fare shall not be less than the peak fare of Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) air-conditioned buses.