After replacing the ‘killer’ blueline fleet, Delhi Govt on Monday approved the ambitious cluster bus service, modelled on the lines of those in London and Paris, under which corporate entities would run nearly 700 swanky buses on specific routes.

The Delhi Cabinet, presided over by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, decided to award contract to four private entities -each of which will run the bus service in separate areas allocated to them as part of efforts to improve the public transport system.

The buses will follow “strict quality standards” and will have GPS system and other facilities like electronic display boards, apart from a time table.

“We have decided to award clusters two, three, four and five to the successful bidders who will have to start their service within next six months,” Transport Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely said.

The transport department last year had divided nearly 650 bus routes across the city into 17 clusters, each comprising profitable and non profitable routes and decided to give each cluster to a private operator.

In November, Government had awarded the first cluster to Star Bus Services Pvt Ltd which is likely to start their service with 232 buses later this month along the BRT corridor in South Delhi.

“Within next six months, we will have a total of 914 buses in these five clusters. We will start the tender process for remaining clusters soon,” Lovely said.

The decision to approve the cluster bus service in areas in South, South East and South West Delhi comes just a week after government set 14th December as deadline for removing all the blueline buses from the city roads.

Modelled on the lines of bus services in London and Paris, the operators will have to follow very strict quality standards prescribed by the government to run the service.

Lovely said all the buses will have to have GPS system and other facilities like electronic display boards, apart from having a strict time table.

As per the plan finalised by Delhi Integrated Multimodal Transit System (DIMTS), the transport department will finalise the bus fares which will go to the government while the private operator will be paid a fixed amount on the basis of every kilometre travelled.

Officials said cluster 2 has been awarded to Indraprastha Logistics Ltd which had quoted minimum amount of Rs 30.88 per kilometre.

The operator will run 232 buses in the area allotted to it.

Clusters three, four and five have been awarded to A B Grain Spirits Pvt Ltd.

For cluster three the company will get Rs 36.68 per km, while for cluster four and five, it will be given Rs 35.69 and Rs 34.79 per kilometre.

Lovely said the operators will have to start the service within the stipulated period of six months.

“Otherwise we will confiscate the bank guarantee of nearly Rs one crore deposited by each operator,” the minister said.