New 'stand fee' for interstate buses at Delhi ISBTs from midnight

New Delhi: The new 'stand fee' for interstate buses plying from the ISBTs will start from Saturday midnight, Raj Niwas officials said.

These revised charges will be collected only through FASTag based system and no bus will be allowed to enter and operate from the terminal’s premises without a FASTag, they added.

"New uniform stand fee charges for interstate operation of State Government, AITP and other private buses (with valid permit) will kickstart in from the intervening midnight of September 14 and 15. They will be applicable to all such buses plying from ISBTs at Kashmere Gate, Anand Vihar and Sarai Kale Khan," the official said.

As per the new scheme of things, private as well as government interstate buses will be paying the same amount of fee for parking and using the bus bays at ISBT.

Currently private buses are charged more, which leads to a situation where they unauthorizedly park and pick passengers on roads outside the ISBT complex, resulting in huge traffic snarls apart from causing passenger/revenue loss to state run buses, they said.

According to officials, logistics for implementation of the FASTag based system have been upgraded and the porta cabins plus barriers have been refurbished. The operators room and storerooms have been air-conditioned along with provisions to provide FASTags to vehicles that do not have them, they added.

The Transport Department will notify new rates and norms for ''to and fro'' inter-state buses utilising these bus terminals, officials said.

This decision came after Delhi Lieutenant Governor, VK Saxena's visit and inspection of Maharana Pratap ISBT on August 31 and a subsequent high level meeting chaired by him and attended by Delhi Transport Minister, Kailash Gahlot.

The LG had also visited ISBTs at Sarai Kale Khan and Anand Vihar on September 9.

To achieve optimum utilisation of facilities, Saxena had suggested equal parking rates for government and private buses along with reduce parking time for both to achieve higher turnaround.

He had also asked for only buses with FAStag stickers to be allowed to enter ISBT, to ensure complete tracking without human interface.

These new norms will not only ensure efficiency in the functioning and operation of the ISBTs but also enable the facility to function to its optimum capacity of 3,000 buses per day as against 1,700 per day, the official said.

The underutilisation till now is because of rate differences between government and private buses, poor management of parking bays, bus staff using terminals as resting places, he said.

There are also systemic issues like staggered circulation due to extended turnaround time, which in turn leads up to traffic gridlock outside the ISBT, he added.

Apart from this, a system of differential parking or utilisation charges based on time is also set to be notified with the purpose of reducing the turnaround time of buses coming in and leaving from the ISBTs, officials said.

This apart from reducing the waiting time for passengers, will also ensure that buses circulate at a faster pace and more revenue is generated for the Transport Department, they said.

Buses will be provided with a fixed parking time slot of 25 minutes at a fixed rate and thereafter for a delay of every five minute stay, they will be charged proportionately extra.

Enforcement and Implementation of the same will be ensured through the FASTags on the buses, they said.