Premium private bus services in Delhi likely to begin next week

The Delhi government’s premium private bus scheme is set to begin services in the Capital next week, transport officials aware of the matter said on Wednesday, adding that so far, two aggregators — Uber and Aaveg — have been granted licences to begin operations in the city.
Transport minister Kailash Gahlot said on Monday, he inspected one of the premium buses that will be operated by Uber.
“The buses are very comfortable. The government and private players came together to make public transport better… They are fully-air conditioned and modern buses. It was designed based on the vision of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal,” Gahlot said.
The premium bus service is a part of the Delhi government’s plan to rope in private players to operate buses for commuters who do not wish to use state-run buses due to concerns over comfort and crowds. The government approved the Delhi Motor Vehicles Licensing of Aggregator (Premium Buses) Scheme, 2023, last October to pave the way for licensing and commencement of services.
Under this scheme, buses will be equipped with CCTV cameras, GPS, panic buttons, and Wi-Fi, among other features, transport officials said.
In the first phase, a fleet of 50 premium buses is likely to hit the road. These buses will operate on a pre-booking basis — seats can be booked through mobile apps — and the government expects that this plan will encourage vehicle owners to use public transit. Their capacity will also be limited to the number of seats on the vehicle, which means that no standing passengers will be allowed to board these buses.
Initially the buses will run on around 50 routes. The details of the bus routes have not yet been disclosed.
Gahlot said the government will not have any role to play with regards to the routes on which these premium buses will ply. “The private players have been given the flexibility to choose the routes and the fare. The routes will be designed by the private players, and they are only required to intimate the transport department,” he said.
The minister said the premium buses and their use by commuters will help in reducing the congestion on the streets. “Countries where people use public transport record less pollution and less congestion. I appeal to the people of Delhi to use premium buses instead of their private vehicles,” he said.
The private players are yet to disclose the fare, but it will be higher than that of state-run buses — the highest fare of a DTC bus is ₹25 —and will be market driven, transport officials said, adding that the government will not have a say in it.
Nikolaas Van de Loock, general manager of Uber Shuttle (EMEA and India), said, “Uber Shuttle helps get more people to travel in fewer vehicles, with all the comfort, convenience, and safety that Uber has brought to everyday commute. We congratulate the Delhi government for being the first state to introduce a licence model for bus aggregators and becoming pioneers in this transforming urban mobility through buses.”
An Aaveg official said their buses have also arrived in Delhi, but did not share further details.
Earlier, between 2000 and 2012, Whiteline buses provided connectivity between fixed points in the city, as well as between Delhi and Noida. They were private buses that ran under the government mandate, had a fixed route and were hugely popular among office-goers. They were also stage carriage buses, which means that they halted at every bus stop on identified routes.
Initially, there were around 700 Whiteline buses and they offered more comfortable rides than public buses. However, eventually, the number of buses decreased and they went off road due to various reasons, including low profit and low demand during non-peak hours and the introduction of the Metro.