DEVI bus service starts in Delhi

Officials said a few 12-metre buses will also be a part of the fleet, which predominantly comprises nine-metre buses, to compensate for around 700 end-of-life vehicles

New Delhi

Buses parked at the Kushak depot. (Arvind Yadav/HT Photo)

The Delhi government will launch the DEVI (Delhi Electric Vehicle Interconnector) bus scheme with a fleet of 400 buses on Friday, officials aware of the matter said, after its launch was postponed due to a three-day mourning for the passing of Pope Francis.

Officials said a few 12-metre buses will also be a part of the fleet, which predominantly comprises nine-metre buses, to compensate for around 700 end-of-life vehicles that were removed from the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) fleet last week.

“These new buses will operate on routes from which buses were removed as per court orders as they had reached end of life. Meanwhile, we are also carrying out route rationalisation process to ensure that maximum advantage can be taken, route wise, without causing inconvenience to commuters,” a transport department official, not wishing to be named, said.

These buses will cover smaller routes connecting the interior streets with arterial roads. The first batch of buses will operate from depots at Ghazipur, Nangloi, and East Vinod Nagar, among a few others, which can accommodate 100 electric buses at present, officials said.

Buses under this service will serve as feeders for major DTC routes and Metro station, and each bus will cover a 12-kilometre route, officials said.

Each DEVI bus has 23 seats, including six reserved for women, and space for 13 standing passengers. The bus is equipped with six battery packs with a total capacity of 196KW, providing a range of above 200 kilometres. Besides, 25% of the seats (six seats) are expected to be reserved exclusively for women passengers.

DTC has also started the process of allocating ad space on buses as bus body wraps to increase its non-fare revenue. A CAG report on the performance of DTC tabled in the Delhi assembly last month suggested that advertisements on buses, bus queue shelters and depots could be a good source of revenue for DTC.

“Initially, the bus body wraps are being planned for older CNG buses that can run till 2030. Some of the initial lot of (new) electric buses will be next. An agency will be hired for it,” the official cited above said.

The bus service was previously termed the Mohalla Bus Service by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, which initiated it about two years ago. It aims to improve last-mile connectivity across the Capital. The government planned to introduce a total of 2,180 smaller nine-metre-long buses by 2025, catering specifically to areas with limited road width or overcrowding where standard 12-metre buses face operational challenges due to their size and turning radius.