Hundreds of thousands of commuters were hit hard in the capital on Monday as DTC crews went on strike to protest against the killing of a driver by a biker in an incident of road rage.
Most of the Delhi Transport Corporation's 4,705 buses went off the roads, with hundreds of drivers and conductors massing at the 45 depots spread across the city, shouting slogans.
A small fleet of buses which plied proved inadequate for the nearly 40 lakh people who use the DTC daily to commute, forcing them to largely turn to the already crowded Delhi Metro.
The strike also affected DTC operations in the neighbouring states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai met officials to sort out the issue arising from the Sunday morning incident when a biker, furious after being hit by a DTC bus, beat the driver to death.
Even as passengers watched, the biker used his helmet and a small fire extinguisher installed in the bus to repeatedly hit the driver, Ashok Kumar Singh.
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The 42-year-old Singh bled to death while being taken to hospital.
As news of his death spread, DTC staff unions threatened a strike on Monday. From the morning, drivers and conductors gathered at the depots and shouted slogans demanding strict action against the biker who has been arrested.
The worst affected on Monday were several thousands of students whose schools hire DTC buses to ferry the children. With no buses, most students piled into auto-rickshaws and private vehicles to reach their schools.
By office time, hundreds of thousands of people made their way to Delhi Metro stations. Taking advantage of the situation, many auto-rickshaw drivers made a killing.
"Efforts are on to normalise the situation," a Delhi transport ministry official told IANS.
Of the DTC's 4,705 buses, 1,275 are air-conditioned and 2,506 non air-conditioned low floor buses. The rest are older standard buses.
By afternoon, the situation eased a little, with DTC buses reporting for duty in some of the schools in Delhi.
DTC spokesman R.S. Minhas said they were doing their best to bring down the hardships of the commuters.
The worst-affected areas, he said, were north Delhi and the rural parts of the city.
"We managed to put 704 buses on the roads against all odds," he said. The number is likely to increase in the evening, he said.
The strike was peaceful, police said.
A Delhi Metro official admitted to IANS that trains were crowded.
"Mondays are generally crowded but there is a lot of rush today because of the DTC strike," the official said.