As many as 11 players have submitted their bids for operating 200 private carriage buses in the capital at an estimated cost of Rs 57 crore.
The firms include Orix Auto Infrastructure Services Ltd, a joint venture between Japan-based Orix Corporation and IL&FS, Mega Corporation Ltd, Goverdhan Transport Company Pvt Ltd, City Life Line Travels Pvt Ltd, Indraprastha Logistics Ltd and Starbus Services.
The bids are part of the efforts of the Delhi government's transport department to corporatise about 4,000 Blueline buses at a cost of about Rs 1,140 crore.
The department has divided the capital in 17 clusters. Request for qualification (RFQ) from private players had been invited for the first cluster, under which the department aims to replace around 200 Blueline express buses by the end of the year.
Thirty-five per cent of these buses will be low-floor, 30 per cent semi-low floor and the remaining will be normal buses. These buses will provide services in about 32 routes in the city.
Delhi Transport Commissioner Rajani Kant Verma said, "We are closely scrutinising the applications for the first cluster. The request for proposal (RFP) for the cluster will be finalised by the end of this week, and we are confident of awarding the contract by June. For the remaining clusters, we will invite the RFQ within the next two months."
Officials at the transport department say the basic objective is to replace all existing Blueline buses before the 2010 Commonwealth Games scheduled to be held in Delhi.
Experts say with corporate houses showing keen interest in the project, the standard of the bus services is expected to improve drastically with professional management that would ultimately benefit the commuters of the city.
