DTC orders 1,000 AC buses, to hit streets by Sept

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) has placed an order for 1,000 airconditioned low-floor buses which, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said has happened after 12 years.

“Congratulations Delhi! After 12 years of wait, orders have been placed by DTC to induct 1,000 low-floor AC CNG buses. All these buses will be on-road by Sept 2021. Delhi government is committed to a pollution-free Delhi by building a world-class public transport system,” Kejriwal tweeted on Friday.

In another tweet he said, “With these 1,000 buses, (the) total DTC fleet (size) will increase to 4,760 and the total bus fleet of Delhi (DTC and cluster) will increase to an all-time high of 7,693. Despite several obstacles in procurement in the past years, our government has persisted and delivered.”

The decision to induct 1,000 new buses in the DTC fleet was approved by the DTC board, chaired by transport minister Kailash Gehlot,on January 6.

Gahlot said on Friday, “Despite many obstacles and hurdles, we have once again delivered. We have kept our promise. Expectedly, by May 2021, Delhi residents will have the first lot of these state-of-theart buses which will be environment friendly, too, as they will be BS-VI compliant.”

The tenders for the batch of 1,000 air-conditioned low-floor buses were first floated in 2019. The contract was signed in 2020 but there were delays because of Covid-19 and the revenue shortage that it brought about. The letter of intent was issued to the manufacturer after the board’s approval.

The 1,000 new buses in the DTC fleet is part of the government’s larger plan to scale up Delhi’s existing bus fleet by 4,000 -- in DTC and the cluster network operated by concessionaires -- and also by introducing electric buses.

The national capital, according to transport experts, needs at least 11,000 buses to cater to its population of nearly 20 million.