First electric DTC bus in Delhi flagged off: Five big highlights
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday flagged off the first all-electric DTC bus in the city from the Indraprastha Depot. The Delhi government is looking at the electric buses to help in the battle against air pollution in the city and is eventually looking to replace a significant chunk of DTC buses - which currently run on CNG - with electric power.
Delhi is notoriously infamous for toxic air pollution levels and a chunk of the blame is on the vehicular emissions here. While the Delhi government has time and again underlined its plans to popularize electric vehicles, the electric DTC buses could potentially help as well.
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Here are five big highlights of the the electric DTC buses:
*The DTC Board has approved plans of having 1,015 electric low-floor air-conditioned buses. The larger plan is to have as many as 3,500 battery-powered DTC buses in the city. At present, DTC buses run on CNG which while not being as polluting as diesel counterparts, aren't exactly zero emission either.
*DTC has purchased 300 electric buses and deliveries were initially scheduled to start in November of last year but was delayed owing to factors caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
*The electric DTC buses measure 12 metres in length and are low-floor vehicles which make entry and exit easier. Additionally, these feature ramp to help easier access for differently-abled persons. According to Kejriwal, it takes up to 1.5 hours to charge the bus and it can travel around 120 kms before needing to be plugged back in.
*Being electric, these buses are obviously have zero tailpipe emissions. But these buses also boast of a number of safety features which include GPS, live tracking, CCTV cameras and panic buttons.
*There are dedicated pink seats which are reserved for women travelers in these buses.
