600 more AC buses in a year

is set to get more than 600 air-conditioned buses by mid next year.

Transport minister Kailash Gahlot told Hindustan Times that the government was preparing a a fresh proposal to procure 2,000 buses, including 200 AC ones.

Another 431 AC buses already procured will be rolled out on in a phased manner.

In a first, these air-conditioned buses are being added to the cluster or orange bus fleet operated by the Delhi Integrated MultiModal Transit System Limited.

At present, all 1,275 AC buses plying are run by the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC).

“The proposal for 1,000 buses each under the DTC and DIMTS will be put up before the Cabinet in two weeks. AC buses too will be inducted,” said Gahlot.

All the buses are going to be standard floor buses, he added.

The buses will be able to seat 42 people — more than that of DTC’s 35-seater low-floor buses.

“The buses will be GPS-enabled and fares will be charged through electronic ticketing machines (ETMs). All 1,693 operational buses under the cluster fleet have these features too,” the official added.

At present, over 5,500 buses, including 3,951 DTC and 1,600 cluster scheme buses, are plying. However, there is a need of around 11,000 buses to deal with the growing passenger traffic.

“The first batch of the buses is expected to arrive early next year,” said a senior government official. Tenders are likely by September.

In September last year, the government had inducted 100 buses under the cluster fleet. In the next phase, it promised to add 800 buses, of which 431 buses will be air conditioned.