Even Master Plan roads like Road Number 205 are without a bus service. This is despite the fact that this road runs adjacent to important residential sectors like 11, 13, 14,15,16,17,18, 19 and 20.
The subcity of Dwarka is a decade old. However, its public transport system is yet to mature. DTC has not properly defined the bus routes for the internal roads. Thereby the overall services and frequency are appalling.
President of Dwarka Forum, Rejimon CK states that the state government has failed to secure an efficient and workable public transport system in the subcity. “The sub city has four DTC bus depots but most of these are nearly empty. Except for bus numbers 764 and 781 that are plying on some of the old routes the rest of the DTC buses are actually conspicuous in their absence. Buses catering to Road Number 201 are relatively more efficient. Ironically this supposedly swanky satellite city has no DTC buses catering to important residential sectors like 16, 17, 18,19,20,22 and 23.”
People of Dwarka say that except for RL77, RL79 and RL75 that mainly cater to office goers at their stipulated hours the rest of the bus services are so bad that commuters only opt for autos or cycle rickshaws. Ramesh Mumukshu of Sector 16B who has been using DTC bus services for a long time said, “The bus transport system is not entrenched throughout the length and breadth of the subcity. At present the DTC buses ply on three main routes that include Route Number 781 stretching from Sector 16 C IP University to New Delhi Railway Station, Route Number 78 stretching from Sector 18 to New Delhi Railway Station and Route Number 75 stretching from Sector 14 Metro Station to New Delhi Railway Station. However, these buses too are not completely regular. I often use the 781 service and it comes to my bus stop after a gap of thirty minutes to an hour. Moreover, the bus on Route Number 75 is rarely seen. Similar is the case for the DTC bus of route 774 which starts from Sector 10 to Nehru Place (covering Mahipalpur). Some odd buses have been designated for office goers in Sector 22, 23 and 19 in the morning and evening hours.”
According to sources, in a bid to introduce new bus routes and strengthen services on existing ones several presentations, meetings and surveys were done by the authorities and transport officials in the past. However, even today many far flung sectors are completely deprived of public transport facilities. Shockingly there are a few master plan roads too like Road Number 205 that have no bus service. “This is despite the fact that this road runs adjacent to important residential sectors like 11, 13, 14,15,16,17,18,19,20. This makes it very challenging for commuters to visit public offices. For instance going to the DCP office at Sector 19 is a case in point. One has to travel more than three to four kilometers in either a metro or autorickshaw to reach the office,” said SK Das, a senior citizen of Sector 18.
Residents have apprised City Spidey that only RL 79 caters to commuters travelling from Sector 22 and 23. “This caters mostly to office goers and the frequency is 20 minutes apart,” says Pramila Malik, a resident of Sector 22. RL 77 catering to commuters from Sector 19 has a similar story. “Earlier there were services to Safdarjung and Nehru Place, but now those have been terminated without any information to commuters,” rues Mukul Kumar a resident of Sector 19B.
