Delhi bus park design approved; upcoming tenders

Construction on the Hari Nagar depot is anticipated to start within the next two months after this week's opening of the tenders.

Following a meeting last week with Delhi's transport minister, (National Buildings Construction Corporation Limited) NBCC India Limited, a central public sector enterprise under the housing and urban affairs ministry, has finalized the designs for the multi-level bus parking depots proposed in Vasant Vihar and Hari Nagar, which are reputed to be the first in the country.

Construction on the Hari Nagar depot is expected to start within the next two months after the opening of tenders this week. More than 700 buses will be able to park in each bus lot.

The Vasant Vihar depot, meanwhile, ran into trouble when design adjustments were necessary because the originally planned commercial spaces now need to be eliminated. The façade will remain the same, but bus parking spaces will be installed in place of the anticipated shop spaces, according to officials.

Tenders for the Hari Nagar depot will be released right away, and we'll have a contractor on board in a few months to start building. A senior NBCC official who was aware of the development stated, Design changes have also been made for the Vasant Vihar depot, and we are in the process of retendering soon.

Both multi-level bus depots were initially designed with substantial commercial spaces and bus parking areas as a self-sustaining approach. The expense of constructing the depots was intended to be covered by the money from the selling of retail spaces. Although the design for Hari Nagar has not changed, this model cannot be used in Vasant Vihar because the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has leased the site to the transport department specifically for the depot. Therefore, no commercial space on this property may be sold or subleased by the government.

The government will now pay for the Vasant Vihar depot using the money it receives from selling another piece of land, according to authorities.

The Hari Nagar depot would feature five levels, including a basement, ground, two stories, and a terrace. It will be constructed on 6.22 acres for around 366.51 crore. Additionally, it will contain about 200,000 square feet of commercial space and 389 bus parking places. According to officials with knowledge of the situation, commercial space sales are anticipated to bring in 390 crore with a net profit of 23 crore.

Vasant Vihar Depot will be five acres in size and include seven levels, including a terrace, ground floor, basement, and four other floors. It has 437 bus parking spaces. After the design adjustments are made, the approximate cost will be determined, according to officials. Both depots' basements will be used to park cars belonging to depot employees and cars going to the nearby commercial district, while the terrace will be used for bus parking.

Both depots are anticipated to be finished by the end of 2025, according to officials, who estimated that construction will take two and a half years.

Both depots are built in accordance with international standards and will be powered by renewable energy sources. To lessen the impact of heavy buses parked on top of one another, they will include electric charging stations, washing pits, and vibration isolation technologies, according to a transport department official.

The official continued by saying that there is already a shortage of depot space and that more depots are required as the transportation department purchases more buses for the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) for cluster operations. The department will receive a fresh batch of roughly 1,500 buses, including e-buses, in less than two months. The multi-level depots will be able to use vertical space without acquiring more land or crowding the buses at existing depots, the transport official claimed.

There are currently 63 bus depots in the transportation department, including 23 for cluster buses and 40 for DTC buses. 7329 buses, including 4,010 DTC buses and 3,319 cluster buses, are housed at these depots.

Last year, the Delhi government originally suggested multi-level bus parking, and NBCC was designated as the nodal execution organization. In March of this year, bids for the construction of both depots were made public.