After a long wait, the Delhi Metro Rail feeder buses started rolling on the roads on Monday the 5th November, 2007. They ran on feeder roads connecting the Shastri Park Metro Station on Line One. On day one, while some busses carried around twenty passengers, others ferried around 15 to 30 persons. According to Mr Anuj Dayal, chief spokesman of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), the response has been very encouraging as the buses had carried about 2,000 commuters by 7.30 pm on 96 feeder rounds.

The buses ran packed to capacity from Shastri Park right up to Geeta Colony and Akshar Dham Temple, but the response was less than expected from more distant stops on Monday. One reason might be the lack of sufficient publicity.

According to Rizwana, a commuter, the buses are fan-cooled and have very comfortable seats. As against the previous feeder services, these buses bring the passengers straight to the respective metro station.

The feeder fleet connecting Shastri Park metro line is presently comprised of a dozen busses and the first service started at 10 a.m. The service frequency is 10 minutes per bus. They run from Shastri Park to Vasundhara Enclave and their route covers Geeta Colony road, Akshardham Temple, Noida Link Road, Mayur Vihar Phase-1, Mayur Vihar Phase-1 Extn., Chilla Sarda Bangar and Dharamshila Cancer Hospital. The spokesman said the feeder bus service would cover another 19 routes as more buses arrive.

Although the DMRC has been sanctioned a permit to run 419 such feeder buses, it has presently placed an order of a total of 120 buses only. The DMRC is planning to take up a longer route next month. It proposes to introduce a ring service from Pitampura Metro Station. The buses will run via Durga Mandir and bring passengers from Rohini Sector 7 & 8 Xing, Sector-7A Part-I, Naharpur Village, Ayodhya Chowk, Vikram Chowk, Rithala Mor, Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Hospital, Rithala Metro station, Rohini Sec-11, Ambedkar Chowk, Rohini Sec-16, Sec-15, Sardar Colony, Pocket B2 and Manav Apartments.

The DMRC also plans to introduce more feeder services to connect more metro stations including Welcome, Vishwa Vidyalaya, Netaji Subhash Place, Rohini West, Indraprastha, Mandi House, Janakpuri West, Dwarka Sector-17 and Dwarka Sector-10.

The feeder service buses promise the standards provided by the metro rail service. The fares have been set at a mere Rs 5 and Rs 8, depending on the distance.

All the buses are equipped with the GPS systems to ensure that they do not stray away from their fixed routes. A series of centralized control rooms has been set up to keep a track on their movements. The buses are retro-fitted with speed governors and are equipped with first aid boxes and fire extinguishers.