GOVERNMENT OF NATIONAL CAPITAL TERRITORY OF DELHI TRANSPORT DEPARTMENT 5/9 UNDER HILL ROAD: DELHI-110054 MINUTES OF STA MEETING HELD ON 15.9.2014 AT 10.00 A.M. IN THE CONFERENCE ROOM OF THE COMMISSIONER (TRANSPORT)/ CHAIRPERSON (STA) Meeting of the State Transport Authority (STA) was held under the Chairmanship of the Commissioner (Transport)/Chairperson, STA. The following were present:- 1. Secretary-cum-Commissioner, Transport In Chair 2. Shri Madan Lal, MLA Member 3. Shri Sanjeev Jha, MLA Member 4. Spl. Commissioner of Police, Traffic Member 5. ACOT/ Secretary, STA Member Secretary Following operators/ members of the Route Rationalization Committee were also given a personal hearing:- i. Shri G.D. Srivastava, DGM, DMRC ii. Shri Vinod Negi, Association of Gramin Sewa iii. Shri Iqbal Singh, Association of Gramin Sewa iv. Shri Shyam Lal Gola, Association of Stage Carriage Mini Bus Operators v. Shri Sanjay Bathla, Association of Stage Carriage Mini Bus Operators At the outset, Chairman, STA welcomed all the Members and thereafter, discussions on agenda items were started with the approval of Chairman, STA. 1. CONFIRMATION OF THE MINUTES OF THE LAST STA MEETING HELD ON 16.6.2014 The STA confirmed the minutes of the aforesaid meeting which were circulated vide No.10 (108)/AS/STA/TPT/2013/131 dated 01-07-2014 to all the Members. Following resolutions were made by STA:- 2. Agenda No.10/2014 I. REPORT OF ROUTE RATIONALIZATION COMMITTEE A Route Rationalization Committee comprising officers of Transport Department, DTC, DMRC, DIMTS, Delhi Police and four members of Association of operators of Gramin Sewa and Private Stage Carriage buses, was constituted by Transport Department. The Committee was asked to make recommendation on the representations of the operators of private stage carriage buses’, Gramin Sewa and Metro Feeder Buses run by DMRC for modification in their routes. Many of the representations 1 were forwarded by the MLAs of the areas. The requests of the operators were also uploaded on the website of the Department for inviting objections / suggestions from general public as well as operators of the Gramin Sewa / mini buses. These objections / suggestions were also considered by the Committee while preparing the report. The Committee submitted its report on 5.8.2014. Chairman of the Committee has informed that in the last meeting held on 1.8.2014, only ten out of the thirteen members attended the meeting. Only six members signed the report and remaining (representatives of operators) did not sign the report. It was decided by the STA Resolution No.7/2014 dated 16.6.2014 that routes of Gramin Sewa shall be beyond outer ring-road and that of private stage carriage mini buses shall be beyond the inner ring-road. The areas beyond outer ring-road were identified by the Committee on the directions of STA through the Resolution No.7.2014 dated 16.6.2014. The Committee identified 46 such routes having around 2000 vehicles which are to be restricted beyond the outer ring-road. Salient features of the report are reproduced as under: “Reasons for representations from operators for extension / change of routes were as under:- i. Routes are parallel to Gramin Sewa Routes/ RTV / DTC/ Cluster Buses. ii. Due to some obstructions by the authority, the existing routes need to be changed. iii. Since the size of the bus has increased after replacement order of February 2012, in some cases the buses cannot move through lanes situated in the existing routes. iv. There is only a single bus on the route making it uneconomical. v. Other reasons. Committee has stated that the recommendations have been made in accordance with the provisions of section 80 (3) of the Motor Vehicles Act 1988 and it has also been ensured that public gets good connectivity with better and safe journey. Private stage carriage mini buses- i. A total of 64 recommendations in respect of 69 routes have been given by the Committee. The Committee has recommended the changes as asked by the operators only in respect of 9 routes. ii. In some cases, the Committee has recommended alternatives other than asked by the operators. iii. In the remaining cases, the requests of the operators have been rejected. 2 Gramin Sewa - i. Out of a total 166 Gramin Sewa routes, 46 were found to be having some portion of the route beyond the outer ring-road. Alternate routes have been recommended by the committee on 44 of these routes. However, the representatives of the operators were not agreeable for change of these routes. ii. Recommendations have also been given on the representation for route modification by the operators, in case of 30 routes. The committee has agreed to the demand of operators in 6 cases. Maxicabs – The operators of maxi cab (point to point) routes no.9101, 9102, 9105, 9107, 9111, 9114 have requested for route modification. None of the requests of the operators have been acceded to by the Committee. Request of M/s Chaudhary Transport Company :. The operator M/s Chaudhary Transport Company represented to Committee the proposal of 30 permits/ buses specially given to the company for operation in Chandni Chowk. The company has stated that after ban of cycle-rickshaw in Chandni Chowk area, the applicant company was given 30 permits to ply on that route. However, later on the said order was set aside by the Hon‟ble Supreme Court of India and as a result the buses business came down and was stationed by owners. Therefore, the applicant / owner has requested for allotment of the following routes:- i. F-101 from GTK Bypass to Narela with modification as Azadpur Metro Station to Narela - 20 buses ii. F-114 from ISBT to Bakhtawarpur – 5 buses iii. F-902 from Punjabi Bagh Terminal to GH Block, Sultanpuri – 5 buses However, the Committee observed that the matter does not come under the purview of the Committee. The Committee further stated that it is to be decided by the STA whether these operators can be accommodated for a different route instead of Chandni Chowk Sewa for which the permits were issued. In this context, it is submitted that the petitioner M/s Chaudhary Transport Company had stated that in April 2012, the Hon‟ble Supreme Court permitted cycle-rickshaws to operate in Chandni Chowk Area and as a result, the petitioner was prohibited from plying its 30 mini buses which were operating on STA permits. He has stated that a huge amount was invested in purchasing mini buses and its operation and maintenance. The vehicles are now lying idle and the staff engaged by it is being paid their salaries 3 without any work being taken from them, in the absence of any alternative route assigned to it by the STA, Delhi. The operator preferred an appeal in the Delhi High Court for alternate routes. The Delhi High Court disposed of the petition of M/s Chaudhary Transport Company with direction to STA, GNCTD to take a decision on the pending representation of the petitioner within a period of four weeks under written intimation. In case the STA turns down the request made by the petitioner, it shall be entitled to seek its remedies against the said decision, in accordance with law As per record, permits to M/s Chaudhary Transport Company were issued on the basis of decision taken by the then Chief Secretary and on the basis of study report submitted by CRRI titled “Transport System Management Plan for Chandni Chowk Area”. The area MP and the then Transport Minister supported the scheme. Initially, DTC was asked to operate these buses but later on it was decided that the scheme may be operated by a private company. DIMTS and DMRC were also asked to operate the scheme, but they declined the offer. A six member technical committee was constituted under the chairmanship of the then Spl. Commissioner, Transport for selection of single operator for the scheme. The two allotment processes initiated on 28.4.2006 and 26.8.2006 did not yield the desired outcome and both processes were cancelled by the Government. The Committee was asked to revise earlier terms and conditions so that the scheme can be made implementable. On the third attempt, M/s Chaudhary Transport Service was selected to operate 30 buses as per the following details: i. Chandni Chowk route – 20 buses (clock wise – Jain Mandir, left turn to Esplanade road, upturn at Meena Bazar-left turn to Chandni Chowk-U turn from Fatehpuri Mosque and return to Jain Mandir. ii. Fountain route – 10 buses (anti-clockwise – Fountain (H.C. Sen Marg) – S.P. Mukherjee Marg, Church Mission Road-Fatehpuri Masjid-Fountain (in a counter clockwise direction). The fares were different from the normal stage carriage buses. The route length was approximately 4 kms for each route and Rs.5/- was allowed to be charged per trip. No stand fee was applicable to these buses. Permits of 5 years validity were issued. The policy was in relaxation to the existing policy for such buses vide which these buses at that time could ply beyond Yamuna and beyond outer ring road. It was also envisaged to put a complete ban on operation of cycle rickshaw traffic from 9 AM to 8 PM prior to operation of these buses in the Chandni Chowk Area. The operation of buses was allowed for the above period i.e. 9 AM to 8 PM. One of the conditions of the scheme was that - “In any circumstances, the operator shall not be allowed to operate these buses on any other stage carriage routes nor the permit shall be converted to contract carriage.