By March, Delhi will have 100 more electric DTC buses

Senior transportation authorities announced on Monday that the national capital will receive 100 electric buses next month, followed by another 200 e-buses by mid-May, boosting the city’s total e-bus fleet to 300.

Currently, Delhi has only one e-bus for public transportation, which was inaugurated on January 17 this year by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. This is one of the 300 electric buses that the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) plans to add to its fleet.

“Around 50 e-buses are slated to arrive in the first week of March.” In total, 100 of the 300 e-buses will arrive in March. The rest will be sent in phases until mid-May, according to an official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Even the current bus fleet of 6,894 in the national capital, which includes CNG buses, according to Transport Commissioner Ashish Kundra, is the most the city has ever had. The DTC operates 3,761 buses (including the lone e-bus), whereas 3,133 are operated by private companies.

Aside from the DTC’s 300 e-buses, the cluster scheme will roll out another 330 e-buses by the end of the year. Officials stated the tender for the 330 e-buses is presently being developed.

According to the transportation official stated above, a batch of 1,500 e-buses under the central government’s “Grand Challenge” (launched in June last year by the ministry of power and NITI Aayog) will begin arriving in July this year, with the last lot arriving in June or July next year.

The Delhi government has planned to acquire only electric buses in the future, with the goal of increasing the share of zero emission vehicles in public transportation to above 50%, according to a study published on October 28 last year.

With the support of the city’s three major private power distribution firms, all current bus depots are being renovated with EV charging infrastructure to accommodate the surge of e-buses.

According to various court orders, Delhi is supposed to have at least 10,000-11,000 public transport buses to cater to its population of nearly 20 million.

Karnataka unveiled its first electric bus for public transit in December of last year. In Ahmedabad and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, JBM provided 90 and 15 electric buses, respectively, last year.