New Delhi: The Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) in its board meeting last week decided to utilise vacant spaces at its depots and terminals for setting up fuel stations.
Officials said that under the project, oil marketing companies will be allowed to set up and operate Company-Owned, Company-Operated (COCO) outlets on DTC land. The spaces will not be leased out. Instead, a revenue-sharing model has been approved to ensure long-term financial returns for the transport corporation.
Officials familiar with the development said that while Delhi has been struggling with limited land availability for new petrol pumps, many DTC depots have unused land pockets that can be repurposed without affecting bus operations.
According to the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) data, Delhi currently has 398 operational petrol pumps, a decline from 416 in 2015. This makes Delhi the country’s only state where the number of petrol pumps has gone down over the past decade, dealers in the city said.
The decline, according to fuel dealers, has been primarily driven by government infrastructure projects.
Nishchal Singhania, president of the Delhi Petrol Dealers Association, said: “Several petrol pumps in the capital were shut down due to metro and road expansion projects. Once these pumps were closed, the dealers could not find new sites in Delhi because of land unavailability.”
Singhania said that some operators shut down their businesses, while others shifted to NCR cities, where approvals and land availability have continued to improve.
An official said this contrast was one of the key reasons why DTC decided to offer its vacant spaces for fuel stations.
Singhania added: “Opening DTC land is a good idea because Delhi urgently needs more petrol pumps. However, before handing the sites to COCO operators, preference should be given to those dealerships that were compelled to shut down due to government projects.”
DTC officials said the corporation is still evaluating multiple models, and only the revenue-sharing structure has been finalised so far. They added that allowing oil companies to use depot spaces will not affect their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) obligations.
DTC will now identify depots with adequate spare land and invite proposals from interested oil marketing companies in the coming weeks.