200 e-buses to be flagged off in Delhi on June 30, boost fleet to 600

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal will flag off on June 30 around 200 new air-conditioned low-floor electric buses which will likely be added to the Capital’s e-bus fleet, transport department officials said on Saturday.

An official aware of the development said that the transport minister has written to the Delhi Transport Corporation in this regard.

The new addition will take the electric bus fleet strength in the Capital to 500, the official said.

“Currently, the capital has 300 electric buses in operation. The new buses will provide passengers a more reliable and comfortable commute experience and will also contribute to decarbonising the public bus transport system,” said the official, asking not to be named.

The 200 buses are part of the first batch of 1,500 buses, which the government said it will add to the public fleet by year-end.

The Delhi government in December last year signed an agreement with a Tata Motors subsidiary for adding 1,500 electric buses to DTC’s fleet in one go.

The new e-buses are more spacious as compared to the existing e-buses, officials said, adding that they are disabled-friendly and are equipped with features such as GPS, panic button, CCTV cameras, live tracking, besides having seats reserved for women.

According to the officials, the Delhi government earlier planned to flag off a batch of 100 buses by the end of May but it was delayed due to technical issues.

A separate official said there were some issues with the acceleration of a bus prototype which was communicated to Tata Motors and has been resolved.

Tata Motors did not respond to HT’s queries on the development.

The induction of the 200 e-buses will pave the way for quicker roll-out of next batches.

“After the induction of these buses, the e-buses will be added in batches of 250 each. We are aiming to induct all 1,500 buses by the end of the year,” said the official quoted in the first instance.

The government is adding electric buses as part of efforts to promote noise and pollution-free transportation, according to officials.

In 2021, the Delhi government decided to only procure electric buses.

The government is pushing for the induction of the electric buses as Delhi hosts the intergovernmental forum G20 meetings this year. India assumed the forum’s presidency in December last year.

The government seeks to increase the strength of its bus fleet to 11,000 and ensure that 80% of all public buses are electric by 2025-26 as part of plans to cut down pollution levels.