Delhi to add a batch of 100 electric buses to its fleet by April first week

The Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) will add a batch of 100 electric buses to its fleet by the end of March or the first week of April. With the latest addition, the the total number of electric buses in the DTC fleet will go up to 400. The buses are being provided by Tata Motors and the Delhi Transport Commissioner Ashish Kundra recently visited the automaker's Lucknow plant to inspect the buses.

Last month, DTC MD Shilpa Shinde visited Karnataka to take a look at the prototype models. "(The prototype) has been cleared and now we have come to the manufacturing plant in Lucknow for a formal inspection of the buses," the official said.

These electric buses come equipped with security features such as CCTV cameras and panic buttons. Once the configuration and registration process is completed, these buses will start hitting the roads of the national capital.

The official added that after the latest batch of electric buses are inducted into the DTC fleet, about 200-250 e-buses will arrive every month. The 100 electric buses are the first of the total 1,500 electric buses that will be inducted into the Delhi transport department's fleet by the end of 2023, taking their total number to 1,800.

In Janury, while flagging off the electric buses, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said that 80 per cent of Delhi's total fleet will be electric by the end of 2025. The target is to buy 1,500 such vehicles by the end of 2023 and procure a total 6,380 electric buses by 2025.

At present, nearly 7,200 buses ply on the roads of the national capital, out of which DTC runs 3,900 buses while the cluster runs 3,300 buses. Along with the induction of new electric units, the government also aims to remove 2,600 buses from the roads in the next one-and-a-half years.