On March 24, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta presented a report from the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) in the Assembly. The report highlighted significant operational inefficiencies and financial losses faced by DTC under the previous Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government. The CAG report evaluates key operational and financial aspects of DTC, pinpointing areas requiring improvement, including fleet management, revenue generation, operational sustainability, and adherence to public transport policies.
One of the major findings was the failure of the AAP government to fulfil its promise of adding 11,000 new buses between 2013 and 2015. In fact, DTC’s fleet shrank from 4,344 buses in 2015 to 3,937 buses by 2023. The report also highlights that, despite the availability of funds from the Delhi government, DTC was only able to procure 300 electric buses (EBs) between 2021 and 2023. Additionally, the report notes that there were delays in adding electric buses to the fleet, but no penalty—totalling Rs 29.86 crore—for the delayed delivery was imposed on the operators.
The CAG report highlighted that since 2015, the Delhi Transport Corporation has faced a severe shortage of buses, emphasising the need for new bus purchases to expand the fleet and replace old, unserviceable vehicles. Despite having Rs 236.82 crore available for bus procurement in 2015 and Rs 233.06 crore as of March 2022, the AAP government failed to introduce new buses into the fleet over the past decade, except for two electric buses in March 2023 and 298 buses added between March and November 2022. The last bus inducted into the fleet was in 2011-12. Additionally, the fleet remained largely unchanged during the review period, with the Standard Floor Buses entirely phased out by 2019-20.
The report also pointed out that the proportion of old buses in the fleet had risen to 44.96 per cent, which negatively affected vehicle productivity and led to an increase in breakdowns. Poor route planning further compounded the situation, resulting in an operational loss of Rs 14,198.86 crore over the seven years audited. This mismanagement also led to missed kilometres and flaws in route planning, which caused a potential revenue loss of Rs 668.60 crore between 2015 and 2022.
The CAG report also revealed that the Delhi Transport Corporation failed to achieve optimal utilisation of its fleet, which negatively affected its operational performance. From 2015-16 to 2018-19, DTC’s fleet utilisation consistently fell below the All India average.
The CAG report also highlighted that the vehicle productivity of the Delhi Transport Corporation was significantly lower than the national average. While the All India average for vehicle productivity per bus per day ranged from 343 km to 348 km between 2015-16 and 2018-19, DTC’s productivity during 2015-22 was much lower, ranging from 180 km to 201 km.
The report noted that DTC’s vehicle productivity was lower than that of other metropolitan cities, even those with a higher percentage of older fleets. For example, the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) in Chennai had a productivity range of 252 km to 287 km per bus per day, while the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation ranged from 200.4 km to 208.5 km per bus per day. This was despite both cities facing similarly congested road conditions.
Additionally, the report noted about 41 fire incidents involving DTC buses during the 7-year period ending in March 2022. Of these, 6 buses were set on fire by mobs, and records for 5 other incidents were unavailable. The remaining 30 incidents were caused by issues such as short circuits, overheating of engine components, loose high-tension cables, wheel jams, and lapses in maintenance by contractors. The CAG report indicated that these incidents reflected poor maintenance practices and the ineffectiveness of DTC’s preventive measures. The CAG report paints a concerning picture of the Delhi Transport Corporation’s operational failures under the AAP government, highlighting significant inefficiencies, financial losses, and unfulfilled promises.
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