NEW DELHI: Delhi’s public transporter DTC on Friday placed an order for 1,000 low-floor, air conditioned buses, with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal saying that the move coming after a “wait” of 12 years shows his government’s commitment to a pollution-free city with world-class transport system.
Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said the order puts to rest “rumours” of closure of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC).
Kejriwal said the new buses will start plying on the roads by September. “Congratulations Delhi! After 12 years of wait, orders have been placed by DTC to induct 1000 low floor AC CNG buses. All these buses will be on road by Sep 2021. Delhi govt is committed to a pollution-free Delhi by building a world-class public transport system,” he tweeted.
The new buses will raise the existing fleet of public transport buses in Delhi to an all-time high of 7,693 buses, he said.
“With these 1000 buses, total DTC fleet will increase to 4760 and the total bus fleet of Delhi (DTC and cluster) will increase to an all-time high of 7693. Despite several obstacles in procurement in the past years, our government has persisted and delivered,” Kejriwal said in another tweet.
The new BS-VI compliant buses being will be equipped with state-of-the-art features like real-time passenger information systems, CCTVs, panic buttons and GPS. The buses will also be modelled to help differently-abled persons to board them.
The last purchase of new DTC buses was made in 2008. The buses were finally inducted in October 2011.
Gahlot said the transport department is working day and night to carry forward Kejriwal’s resolve to make Delhi’s transport system the best in the world.
“The 1000 buses are coming after tireless efforts to cross various obstacles. With this the rumours of the closure of DTC have been put to rest. We have been working to strengthen DTC from the beginning.
DTC is the backbone of Delhi’s transport system,” Gahlot said. The DTC bus fleet numbered 4,879 by February 14, 2015. Currently, the DTC runs 3,760 buses, said a government statement. Meanwhile, in the last two years, 1,681 buses were added to Delhi’s bus fleet by the transport department under the cluster scheme operated by Delhi Integrated Multimodal Transit System (DIMTS).
1,681 buses added to Delhi’s bus fleet
In the last two years, 1,681 buses were added to Delhi’s bus fleet by the transport department under the cluster scheme.