Govt OKs induction of 1,500 electric buses
NEW DELHI: The Delhi government on Friday approved the induction of 1,500 low floor electric buses in its public transportation fleet.
In a resolution of the Delhi Transport Corporation Board, which gave the approval to induct the 1,500 Electric Buses along with it the DTC Board had already provided approval for the procurement of 921 buses under the Grand Challenge Scheme of Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL) which comes under FAME-II (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicle) category and the remaining 579 buses under non-FAME-II category.
For the 579 buses in the non-FAME category, the government will provide a subsidy of Rs 262.04 crore at the same level as the FAME-II subsidy. Tata Motors emerged as the most successful bidder in the tender that was released by the Government for the operation of the buses in Delhi. The Delhi Transport Corporation will soon sign the Master Concession Agreement with the company for the deployment of the buses on Delhi Roads and the Government is set to spend a total of Rs 7,606.45 crore on the operation, maintenance, and development of the infrastructure related to the buses.
The Board also decided to allocate 10 sites of DTC — Ambedkar Nagar Depot, Jal Vihar Terminal, Dilshad Garden Terminal, Karawal Nagar Terminal, Shadipur Depot, Mayapuri Depot, Bindpur Terminal, East Vinod Nagar, Punjabi Bagh, and Rohini Depot-I — to various service providers for establishing EV charging and battery swapping stations under Delhi EV Policy 2020. Delhi Transco Limited (DTL) has identified 4 service providers through a competitive bidding process who will soon sign an agreement with DTC for setting up the EV charging or battery swapping stations at these locations.