Rules thrown under the bus: How interstate carriers are wreaking havoc on Delhi roads

NEW DELHI: It’s around 9pm and the bus stop opposite the Akshardham temple in east Delhi is teeming with passengers. Heavy baggage in tow, the travellers, many with families, are not awaiting Delhi Transport Corporation or the cluster scheme city buses, but are here to catch those that will take them further afield to places like Lucknow and Varanasi, Kanpur and Faizabad.



The red, green or orange Delhi buses halt at the Akshardham bus stop through the day. After 8pm, however, it turns into an unofficial interstate bus terminal. It is from here that private luxury buses pick up passengers destined to other cities and towns. These buses are only supposed to pick up and drop passengers at the three interstate bus terminals at Kashmere Gate, Sarai Kale Khan and Anand Vihar. But despite the presence of Delhi Police boards warning private buses not to take on passengers at the spot, there is no stopping them. When TOI visited the spot, there weren’t any police personnel around.

Most passengers now prefer to book tickets online through ticketing platforms. When you book on these website, you are offered a choice of pick-up locations, most of them illegal stops. These include New Delhi railway dtation, Majnu Ka Tilla, Akshardham, Dhaula Kuan, Mayur Vihar, Red Fort, RK Ashram Marg, Fatehpuri, Tis Hazari, Vidhan Sabha metro station, Karnal Bypass, etc. In effect, these illegal halts have become unofficial bus terminals on such portals.

The scenario at Majnu Ka Tilla, one of the biggest ‘unofficial’ ISBTs in the city, is no better. More than 50 buses jostle for space on the busy Outer Ring Road between Majnu Ka Tilla police post and the approach road to Signature Bridge. Unlike Akshardham, luxury buses keep standing on the roadside at Majnu Ka Tilla, waiting to fill up before heading to Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand.

“Our first stop is near RK Ashram metro station, from where we drive to Majnu Ka Tilla, which is the final spot for picking up passengers before leaving Delhi,” disclosed Amrit Kumar, conductor of a bus leaving for Himachal. For buses going to Haryana and Rajasthan, Dhaula Kuan is the busiest illegal stop.

Picking up passengers at the unpermitted locations isn’t the only transgression, for the interstate buses pay scant regard to traffic rules, halting anywhere on their route for boarding or deboarding travellers or overtaking from the wrong side. This open flouting of rules seems to have neither angered the traffic police nor alarmed Delhi government’s transport department.

Traffic police officers claim that challans are often issued, but mostly the cops urge the buses to leave quickly. “Since they carry a large number of people and act as a connector between Delhi and other cities, stricter punishment like impounding the vehicles would mean harassing the passengers,” said a police officer. They are booked, if at all, only for obstructive parking and causing traffic jams.

A transport department official explained that these private buses aren’t allowed to pick up or drop passengers at multiple spots because their contract carriage permit only allows them to take people from one point to another. Also they don’t have permits to operate from ISBTs — only state transport corporation buses do. But, he added, these buses offer more comfort than state buses and offer competitive pricing, making them popular among passengers. “We are aware of the unofficial pick-up points and carry out prosecution drives from time to time, but the fines are so low the buses are hardly deterred,” the official shrugged.