The objective is encouraging a modal shift in public transport by promoting efficient premium bus services, the paper said.
The draft paper comes at a time when multiple technology companies have shown interest in starting bus services. ET reported on May 12 that Uber has been piloting a bus service in the Delhi National Capital Region and Egypt’s capital of Cairo.
The policy paper said only electric and CNG buses could ply under the scheme initially and only electric buses after January 1, 2024. The bus routes and fare can be decided by the companies, who should have a fleet of at least 50 buses.
“Basically, the current model is that the government-owned or government-managed buses are plying on fixed routes, at fixed costs,” Ashish Kundra, Delhi’s principal secretary – transport, told ET. “Mostly these routes have been fixed around 15 years ago, and they don’t really move where the demand is.”
Multiple companies have expressed interest in launching the service in the region, Kundra said.
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“The idea is that if we are able to provide two-wheelers and personal vehicle users some kind of premium service, in which they book like an Uber, which picks them up from where they are and drop at their workplace, people are willing to pay a premium for fixed, comfortable seats rather than trying to drive in the traffic,” he said.
The policy paper suggests that all the processes should be done digitally, including the dynamic pricing, ticketing, maintaining of customer data and accepting payments. The communication with the customer would be done primarily through the aggregator’s app.
This is the second such draft policy paper in recent times by the Delhi transport department. On July 4, it issued the final draft of the aggregator policy, which aims to regulate various tech companies in food delivery, ecommerce and ride-hailing that operate vehicles in the national capital region.
