NEW DELHI: Presenting the first budget of its new term, the Delhi government on Monday allocated Rs 259 crore for purchasing new buses to augment the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) fleet and another Rs 1,100 crore to hasten the process of purchasing more cluster buses.Rolling out the budget, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said his government has set its sights on augmenting the DTC fleet to 11,000 buses, as well as laying out a 500-km Metro line.
“Altogether, 2,485 new buses (1,300 DTC and 1,185 cluster buses including 685 electric buses) will be added to our fleet during the year 2020-21 and 1,880 buses (444 DTC and 1,436 cluster buses) will be purchased in 2021-22. This will help us meet the targeted total fleet size of 11,000 buses. I propose an outlay of Rs 250 crore for the purchase of buses by DTC and `1,100 crore to address viability issues in the purchase of cluster buses,” Sisodia said.
Sisodia, who also holds the finance portfolio, said his government has also planned to build multi-level bus depots, which would be the first of its kind in the country.“I wish to inform the House that non-availability of land in Delhi has made purchase and plying of more public buses a huge challenge. Hence, we have decided to convert four bus depots — Okhla, Harinagar, Vasant Vihar and Hasanpur — into multi-level facilities.
The government, in its last term, added new buses to boost its public transport system. Around 600 buses, equipped with CCTVs and disable-friendly lits, have already been inaugurated by the chief minister.
Sisodia said that free ridership for women in DTC buses will continue into the next fiscal. It was launched in October 2019. He also proposed an outlay of `900 crore for Metro Phase 4.