TRANSPORT BOOST
NEW DELHI: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday flaggedoff 100 low-floor air-conditioned buses under the cluster scheme, which, according to data shared by the government, takes the Capital’s bus fleet size to 6,070, against the sanctioned fleet size of 11,000. The 100 buses flagged off from Rajghat depot on Friday afternoon are the first batch of air-conditioned buses in the cluster scheme – which have orange body colour. So far, air-conditioned buses were only with the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC).
While the DTC – which now has 3,762 buses – come under the direct control of the city government, the orange cluster buses – which now has a fleet size of 2,308 after the latest edition – are rub by concessionaires.
Fresh tenders for procurement of e-buses will be floated soon and these buses will start arriving in the next few months, he said. The chief minister said about 9,000 new buses will be plying on Delhi’s roads in the next one year.
Kejriwal said his government is committed to make the transport department an example in the country. “I want to congratulate the people of Delhi that 100 new low-floor AC buses have been flagged off on the roads of the national capital. We were hearing claims that the buses were only flagged off because of the elections, but I want to say that the buses are being deployed even after the elections. The Delhi government is going to deploy 9,000 buses on the roads of the national capital within the next year,” the Chief Minister said.
The buses are 37-seater and all have hydraulic lifts for the convenience of differently-abled.
Also, 14 panic buttons, seven each side,and CCTV cameras have been installed inside the bus. The buses have fire detection and suppression system. The 100 buses will ply on 16 different routes across the city.