Govt nod to induct 190 low-floor buses into Capital’s fleet

The new buses will start arriving next year. The Delhi government statement said, “These new low-floor CNG AC buses will be fully compliant with BS-VI emission standards. New buses will be equipped with state-of-the-art facilities like real-time passenger information system, CCTVs, panic buttons and GPS...”

The Delhi cabinet on Friday approved induction of 190 low-floor buses in the city’s cluster service fleet which will take the national capital’s total public bus fleet size to 7,140, the government said in a statement.

The induction of the new buses is part of a larger plan of the government to add 4,000 buses to the city’s fleet by the end of next year. (Representational image/HT Archive)

“Delhi cabinet, under the leadership of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, approves the induction of 190 low-floor CNG buses under its cluster scheme. With the induction of these 190 buses, (the) total number of cluster buses will reach 3,383 and the total bus fleet in Delhi will reach an all-time high of 7,140,” the government said in a statement.

The new buses will start arriving next year. The statement further said, “These new low-floor CNG AC buses will be fully compliant with BS-VI emission standards. New buses will be equipped with state-of-the-art facilities like real-time passenger information system, CCTVs, panic buttons and GPS...”

Delhi transport minister Kailsh Gahlot announced the move on Twitter after Friday’s cabinet meeting: “Congrats Delhi! Cabinet today, under the leadership of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, cleared the proposal for induction of 190 low-floor AC CNG buses fitted with CCTV, GPS, panic buttons and differently-abled friendly.”

The statement said that the government will incur a cost of over ₹1,250 crore. “The Transport department will incur an estimated amount of ₹1,259 crore on the viability gap funding for 10 years on the prevailing fare structure w.r.t the engagement of 190 buses under cluster number 16B CLF. These buses will start arriving next year,” the it said.

The statement issued by the government also said that initially they had issued one tender for 350 low-floor cluster buses twice but it failed to materialise into a work order. Things started working out only when the tender was broken into two -- comprising 160 and 190 buses.

The induction of the new buses is part of a larger plan of the government to add 4,000 buses to the city’s fleet by the end of next year.

The government statement said, “Delhi government currently operates a total of 3,033 non-AC and AC buses under the cluster scheme. Earlier this year, Delhi cabinet had also approved the proposal for the award of contract to 160 buses and with the addition of these 190 buses, the total number of cluster buses will reach 3,383 and the total bus fleet in Delhi will reach an all-time high of 7,140. 300 electric buses will also be inducted into the DTC fleet by start of next year and a total of approx 3,500 new electric buses are also getting added to the DTC and cluster fleet as per the induction plan of the transport department.”