While the Delhi government is yet to announce relaxations for Lockdown 4.0, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday gave hints of opening up the public transportation network from next week as different nodal agencies readied to deal with the coronavirus spread.
The Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), the Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS) and the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) have already issued new travel guidelines, including social distancing and precautions, for people who will use public transports after receiving official nod from the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) and the Central government.
While Metro service has been completely stopped since March 22, 50 per cent buses in the city are running at present, allowing only those in essential services to board the buses.
Among the common points in both modes of transports are allowing only half the capacity of people on alternate seats and use of the Aarogya Setu app and face masks. Also, arrangements for hand sanitisation or hand wash facility will also be made available at the entry points.
"While we have not decided on the date of resuming the services for the common people. There will be multiple restrictions imposed whenever the buses will be allowed. Mask and social distancing will be the most common among those," an official from the DTC told .
The DTC will encourage cashless transactions for issuing tickets and sanitisation of buses after every trip will also be done, the official said.
"It will also be encouraged to install sanitisers inside the buses or hand washing facilities at the bus stations," he added.
The DMRC, on the other hand, will have thermal screening of passengers and those having flu-like symptoms won't be allowed inside the Metro.
"The DMRC is working out the detailed cleaning and maintenance procedures in view of the pandemic. Protocols for social distancing are being worked upon in the trains and the station premises," the DMRC said.
According to the official data, there are 264 stations, 2,200 coaches and over 1,100 escalators and 1,000 lifts for common use.
"Passengers using the Delhi Metro, post resumption of operations, will have to take out any metallic items like belts and buckles before frisking and keep them in their bags which will be scanned by an X-ray machine," the DMRC said.
The Covid-19 lockdown announced on March 24 was to end on April 14. It was extended up to May 3 and later till May 17. The Centre and the states are now having discussions on the picture post May 17.
Kejriwal said on Thursday that many people have given their suggestions for the resumption of transport services, including auto-rickshaws and taxis.
"A majority of people are in favour of the resumption of bus services with strict social distancing norms in place. People have also suggested that metros should be open in a limited manner," Kejriwal said.
About 3,700 DTC buses and close to 2,300 buses under DIMTS were running in the city before the lockdown.
As of February, 5,500 buses had ridership of about 40 lakh per day. The Delhi Metro, with a network 389 km, was ferrying about 60 lakh people per day. With 285 stations, the Metro network is spread across Delhi-NCR.
( With inputs from IANS )