‘Why no bids for DTC low floor buses’

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday asked public transport operator DTC why no one was bidding for its tender to procure low floor buses for the national capital and opined that the fault may be at its end.

“Why is it no one, even global players do not want to bid for Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) tender for low floor buses? The fault may be at your end,” a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said. 

The court also said it will “not permit anything to be done which would keep a large population out of or away from public transportation”.

It was hearing two PILs challenging separate tenders issued last year and in March this year to procure standard floor buses (SFBs) for the national capital on the grounds that they were not disabled-friendly. 

The court's observations came after DTC said that in the past it has not received bids which were affordable when it floated tenders for procuring low floor buses as even Indian companies Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland quoted unreasonable figures. 

Ashok Leyland said that DTC had not floated any tender for procurement of low-floor buses since 2014 and has not even cleared the maintenance costs of the ones supplied prior to that. 

It also said that while procuring the buses, the DTC had said they were meant to carry 50-55 passengers, but in reality twice that number were travelling, leading to increased wear and tear and higher maintenance costs. 

Both Ashok Leyland and Tata had earlier indicated their stand on affidavit to which DTC has not yet responded. 

The bench noted this today and directed the transport operator to file its reply before May 30, the next date of hearing. 

The court said that DTC in its affidavit has also nowhere said the buses procured from Ashok Leyland (AL) and Tata in the past were not running properly. 

“Delhi cannot be subjected to such idiosyncrasies of authorities who do not want to move forward,” the bench added. DTC told the court it had called AL and Tata to discuss supply of LFBs, but the companies said it would take them nearly a year to provide the same. 

To this, the bench said it was “better to wait” for a year so that disabled persons can avail of public transport, “instead of squandering money” on standard floor buses which are not accessible by all. 

“You are so obstinate. There is no effort made to provide an enabling environment,” the court said. The court was hearing two PILs moved by Nipun Malhotra, who suffers from a locomotor disability, challenging the tenders for SFBs. 

Malhotra, in his fresh PIL filed through advocate Jai Dehadrai, has contended that by issuing the tender to procure 1,000 SFBs, DTC and the Delhi government have “completely failed to take into account the issues which would be faced by the disabled and elderly population, when it comes to basic access to public transport”. 

In his earlier petition, he has challenged the Delhi government’s decision of last year to procure 2,000 SFBs at a cost of Rs 300 crore.