Delhi aims 8,000 electric buses by 2025, highest among all cities in India

Delhi aims to become the first city in India to have 8,000 electric buses as part of its public transport fleet. Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister of Delhi, said his government plans to achieve 80 per cent electrification of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTV) fleet within the next three years. on Wednesday, the national capital added 97 more electric buses delivered by Tata Motors. These buses will operate under the jurisdiction of the DTC. 50 of them will be stationed at Rajghat depot. Each bus takes around 40 minutes to fully recharge.

At the flag-off ceremony on Wednesday, Kejriwal announced that 8,000 electric buses are set to arrive in the national capital by 2025. "We are phasing out old-polluting buses and replacing them with electric buses. Many countries have very modern transport systems. We will take a page out of their book and develop the most effective and efficient transport model in Delhi," Kejriwal said during the event.

Delhi already has 153 electric buses plying on roads, with most of them operating under the DTC and some as cluster units. With 97 more added to the fleet, Delhi's overall electric bus strength has grown to 250. It will soon hit 300 when the national capital inducts 50 more by the end of next month. "We are in the process of acquiring another 1,500 e-buses, we expect them to come by November 2023. So by the end of next year, we will boast a tally of 1,800 e-buses. Post that, the pace of this e-bus revolution will accelerate even further. By 2025 end, we will add 6,380 more e-buses to our fleet," Kejriwal added.

Delhi currently has 7,373 buses operating on a daily basis. More than half of them operate under DTC while the rest are part of the Delhi Integrated Multimodal Transit Systems (DIMTS). The number will swell beyond 10,000 if everything goes according to the state government's roadmap. "With over 8,000 e-buses Delhi will become the city with the most e-buses in the country," Kejriwal said.

Besides inducting new electric buses, the state government is also emphasising on EV charging infrastructure for public transport vehicles. Around 55 bus depots in Delhi are set to get their own EV charging stations by the end of next year. Kejriwal recently inaugurated at least three of them. 17 more are scheduled for inauguration by June next year.