E-Paper
Delhi cabinet gives nod for purchase of 300 e-buses
New Delhi The Delhi Cabinet on Friday approved a proposal for purchase of 300 low-floor fully electric air-conditioned buses by the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) under the Central government’s “faster adoption and manufacturing of hybrid and electric vehicles in India (FAME) phase-II” scheme
New Delhi
The Delhi Cabinet on Friday approved a proposal for purchase of 300 low-floor fully electric air-conditioned buses by the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) under the Central government’s “faster adoption and manufacturing of hybrid and electric vehicles in India (FAME) phase-II” scheme.
The government in a statement said the first tender called by DTC in October 2019 was “not found responsive” and, therefore, the process was cancelled. A fresh tender was later called in June 2020, but that too was cancelled as the rates were not found to be competitive. Finally, a third tender in December 2020 was found to be responsive and competitive.
“The first prototype of the e-buses is likely to be received by DTC in June 2021. The first lot of 118 buses shall arrive in October 2021, with 100 more buses being added in November. Thereafter, 60 buses will arrive in December, while the remaining 20 buses are likely to be added by January 2022. The buses shall be parked at the Subhash Place Depot, Mayapuri Depot, Rohini-II Depot, Rajghat-II Depot, and Mundela Kalan Depot,” read the statement.
Delhi transport minister Kailash Gahlot said: “Under the dynamic leadership of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, we have been taking a lot of measures to ensure sustainable and state-of-the-art transport facilities and a switch to electric non-polluting modes. In fact, electric buses are being introduced in Delhi for the first time and this is one of the largest engagements of electric buses by any state government or state transport undertaking.”
The Delhi government said in its statement on Friday, said, “So far DTC has been operating only buses owned by it. The lowest bidder is M/s. JBM, which has quoted Rs.68.58 per km. The second-lowest bidder, M/s. Tata Motors, has agreed to match the rate quoted by M/s. JBM. Under the tender conditions, M/s. JBM shall operate 200 buses, while 100 buses shall be operated by M/s Tata Motors.”
Meanwhile, the Dialogue and Development Commission in association with RMI India organised a webinar under the Switch Delhi campaign on “Accelerating Electrification of Fleets in Delhi” on Friday.
“It’s a huge opportunity for logistics operators, last-mile connectivity service providers and cab aggregators to make a switch to EV due to low regulatory burden and progressive EV policy in place in Delhi. We are already seeing this shift. Out of 7700+ EVs registered in Delhi since the launch of Delhi EV policy in August 2020, 85% are commercial vehicles or operating fleets,” said Jasmine Shah, VC-DDC.
