On Friday, Delhi’s transport minister Kailash Gahlot declared a plan that 2,000 new CNG and electric buses will be running on the roads of the capital by the next November and this plan had been approved by the Delhi Government Transport Department.
1,000 buses will be acquired by the government for Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and also the cluster scheme which is operated by the Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System.
Besides finalizing the 2,000 new CNG and electric buses, the government has also begun with the preparations to introduce standard-sized electric buses to run on the longer routes and mini-sized electric buses to connect residential areas with Delhi Metro station within a radius of 5 km.
Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi held a meeting on Wednesday, in which he concluded that clear directions will be given to get a fleet of electric buses as big as possible. Revealed a government official on condition of anonymity.
The official added in his statement that, “they have to find a better way to cover-up the gap of the cost between the electric and CNG buses, as the capital cost required for electric buses is very high”. The government has decided to provide the capital subsidy for the procurement of buses. The procurement cost will decide the total number of the electric buses.
