The proposal was prepared by the DTC Chairman G.S. Chima and presented to Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit a week ago. Dikshit and her Cabinet are said to have approved the broad proposals, which are reportedly in the process of being fine-tuned. The State Transport Minister, Parvez Hashmi, who was against the proposal for privatising the loss-making DTC, has also given in. ``The idea is to make the DTC look different and modernise its fleet. Though the projected requirement for the revamp programme has been put at Rs 110 crore, the government is prepared to spend more,'' a senior Delhi government official said.

With the public transport system in disarray and the Mass Rapid Transit System a good seven years away from completion, the Delhi government does not have much of an option. ``It is not possible to close down the DTC and no one will put money into a loss-making company which has 10,000 surplus staff (the actual ratio is 11.5 men per bus against the norm of 8 men per bus),'' a Transport Ministry official said. According Chima's presentation, the DTC has 1,500 buses stranded in depot workshops for repairs and spares. Now the government will not only fund new CNG buses, but will spend Rs 6.05 crore to computerise DTC operations, Rs 0.74 core for new furniture and Rs 0.24 crore for communications.