DTC losses mounted by Rs 35,000 crore in 6 years: CAG | India News

(*6*)

DTC losses mounted by Rs 35k crore in 6 years: CAG (Pic credit score: PTI)

NEW DELHI: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has said that Delhi Transport Corporation‘s cumulative losses soared from Rs 25,300 crore in 2015-16 to just about 60,750 crore in 2021-22 because it was weighed down by dwindling fleet, with 45% of buses being overage and vulnerable to excessive ranges of breakdown, ensuing in below-par fleet utilisation.
In the lengthy overdue report, anticipated to be tabled in meeting by the brand new BJP govt on Tuesday, the auditor pointed to a number of lapses, together with the transport utility’s lack of ability to reinforce its fleet, sources advised TOI. This is the primary of 14 experiences that the AAP govt had refused to share in the meeting.
The major cause for the losses was DTC fares remaining unchanged since 2009, sources stated, with the Delhi govt refusing to pay heed to a number of requests. The burden additional went up as girls got free bus rides. The auditor additionally pointed to the absence of any marketing strategy and there was no roadmap to verify the bleeding and to make sure its monetary viability, stated sources who’ve seen the report.
The skeletal DTC fleet, with damaged down buses a part of commuters’ every day expertise, was a political problem, with BJP and Congress repeatedly speaking up AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal’s 2015 promise to spice up the fleet by 10,000.
CAG factors out poor route planning by DTC
In 2007, Delhi High Court had ordered that DTC ought to have a fleet of 11,000 buses. However, 5 years later, the Delhi cupboard pegged the quantity at 5,500. The CAG report is learnt to have identified that on the finish of March 2022, DTC had a fleet of three,937 buses, of which 1,770 had been overage. The low-floor buses had been greater than 10 years outdated and had been attributable to be phased out by the top of subsequent month.

Although there was a scarcity of 1,740 buses, besides the addition of 300 buses in 2022, procurement was not accomplished regardless of Rs 233 crore being obtainable. It didn’t avail of central help of one other Rs 49 crore underneath FAME-I scheme, which CAG attributed to indecision and lack of readability on specs. A delay in the finalisation of 300 electrical buses underneath FAME-II resulted in the contract interval being decreased from 12 years to 10 years.
An ageing fleet meant that DTC couldn’t obtain operational effectivity in comparison with the nationwide common. Besides, breakdowns ranged between 2.9 and 4.5 for each 10,000 km of operations, which was seen to be very excessive in comparability to different state transport firms in addition to cluster buses run by non-public operators on contract.
CAG identified that the efficiency of cluster buses was a lot better than that of the DTC fleet on every operational parameter, regardless of each working in comparable circumstances.
The federal auditor additionally faulted DTC for poor route planning with the state utility working on 468 routes or 57% of the whole 814 routes. “The corporation was unable to recover its operational cost in any of the routes operated by it. As a result, it suffered losses of Rs 14,199 crore on operations during 2015-22,” a supply stated.
While losses soared, the Delhi govt offered a income grant of Rs 13,381 crore between 2015 and 2022, which left a spot of Rs 818 crore. Further, DTC didn’t signal an MoU with the Delhi transport division setting bodily and monetary targets.
Further, CAG is learnt to have pulled up DTC for not implementing an automated fare assortment system and having CCTV surveillance system that remained incomplete even 9 years after the undertaking was initiated.