NEW DELHI: In a rare show of togetherness, Lieutenant-Governor VK Saxena and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal flagged off 500 electric buses on Thursday, taking the number of such buses in the national capital to 1,300.
Delhi now has the highest number of electric buses in the country. “We have rolled out 500 (electric) buses. These are zero-emission vehicles. We will continue with such efforts to make Delhi a better place to live in,” Saxena told the media. Kejriwal thanked Saxena and promised to improve the city transport.
“I want to congratulate the people of Delhi. I also want to thank the L-G for taking out time for the occasion. We now have 1,300 electric buses in the city,” he said. In a post on X, Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said, “Congrats Delhi! We’re celebrating another huge milestone today! Flagged off 500 new e-buses. Success doesn’t come in overnight, it is a guaranteed result of consistency. We are yet again leading the way with a record 1,300 e-buses.”
Later, at a presser, the minister said the additional buses will help in the city’s fight against pollution. “In winter, pollution levels have gone up. One CNG bus emits 800 gram of carbon dioxide per km. One electric bus saves that much amount of hazardous gas going into the air,” he said.
Before the Thursday addition, 800 electric buses were on Delhi roads since January 2022. These vehicles have covered more than 42 million km and cut more than 34,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide so far, the minister said.
By 2025, the city will have 10,480 electric buses comprising 80% of the fleet. This will help cut 4.67 lakh tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, according to the minister.