Now, the blind especially students and employees need not to ask anyone about the route number of any bus arriving at the bus stops as the Delhi Transport Department is planning to install digital audio announcements facilities at the ‘bus queue shelters’ across the Capital alike the metro station. The announcing facilities that will be fitted in both the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses and bus stops will tell the information related to the arrival of upcoming buses such as route number, name and time of arrival and departure.

Currently, there are total numbers of 4627 bus shelters situated across the National Capital, out of which around 1,874 are stainless steel modernized bus stops. As per the official, the hearing facility will be fitted only in the modernized bus stops. The work will start once the installations of Global positioning system (GPS) tracker facility will be installed in the buses of DTC and the cluster scheme buses.

“We are receiving requests from the public such as Delhi University for the audio announcements facility at the bus stops located at North Campus area, in order to help the disabled students especially the visually impaired to easily find the route number of buses. Thus, the department decided to add the feature in all the bus stops situated across the city,” said an official.

As per a senior DU official, there are around 2500 blind students who daily travel to North Campus by using buses as mode of transport.

The government has recently floated tender for the installations of CCTV cameras, panic buttons, audio announcements and GPS tracking system in the buses. Further, the government is on a process of procuring 3000 buses (1000 electric, 1000 standard floor with mechanical lifts and 1000 low floor) under DTC and Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS) will have all these facilities already inbuilt. currently, the city has a fleet of 5500 buses including cluster buses.

“The new buses will have facilities inbuilt but the tender has been floated for the existing buses which do not have such upgraded modern facility. The work process for the same will begin soon and expected to complete by end of this year.  Once, the GPS tracking system will be installed, the fitting of audio announcements in the existing bus stops will begin,” said the official.

However, as per the transport official, out of the 4,627, only 1874 bus shelters are modernized and the remaining are in a very poor and dilapidated conditions. Moreover, the city also needs around 1400 new bus shelters for which the Government has floated tender for five times and the tender failed for five times.

“Tender has been failed for five times and recently, the government has also conducted a design competition to appoint a consultant and agency to award the tender. But the agencies selected claimed high price/budget for the construction of 1400 shelters. Thus, the government has decided to construct these shelters and the process on this project will start once the election will be over. The estimated budget for the ‘Bus Queue Shelters’ is Approximately Rs 156 crore,” added the official. 
Source: https://www.dailypioneer.com/2019/state-editions/audio-facilities-at-bus-stops-for-visually-impaired.html