Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) has dropped the plan to hire midi buses - having around 32 seats - which it had earlier decided to run owing to the dire shortage of low-floor buses.
DTC had planned to go for around 1700 midi buses as the acquisition of low-floor buses was taking a long time due to poor response from their manufactures.
"DTC has dropped the idea to hire smaller buses, which were supposed to run on such routes where ridership is low. Few days back, a private company showed a midi bus to our officials at DTC headquarters, but they didn't like it because of less space and price issue," said a senior DTC official, who did not wish to be named.
Officials also said that they were now shifting their focus on standard-size buses as they have larger sitting space for passengers and also considering to float tenders for hiring such buses after elections.
After seeing the poor response from manufactures when DTC floated tenders for standard-size buses last year, it had planned to add smaller buses to its fleet to fulfill demand.
"We also wanted to run midi buses at night, but as DTC has dropped the plan, officials are now looking at standard-size buses in the national Capital," the official said.
The official also admitted that DTC has always preferred 'big-size' buses as it has sufficient space for passengers for sitting and standing and also they can comfortably travel in such buses.
At present, DTC is in dire need to hire more buses to ensure better service for the people of Delhi. Last year, DTC had floated tenders for 1725 buses, but only one company had taken interest with high cost.
