NEW DELHI: The Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal flagged off a fleet of 50 electric buses procured by the government at Rajghat bus depot on Monday, January 2, where he disclosed that 80 per cent of buses of Delhi’s fleet will be electric buses by 2025.
Kejriwal said, “Now, we have 300 electric buses and a total of 7,379 buses. This is the highest number of buses on Delhi roads in 75 years.” He added that the government aims to procure 1,500 more electric buses by the end of 2023. “After this, the total electric buses in Delhi’s public transport fleet will be 1,800, the highest in any State.”
Apart from this, the government will procure around 6,380 electric buses by the end of 2025. Earlier, government procured around 100 electric buses from the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).
With the addition of new buses, the capital bus fleet will have a total of 8,280 electric buses. In 2025, Delhi will have 10,480 buses, 80 per cent of which will be electric buses.
In addition to electrifying the bus fleet of the UT of Delhi, government is also planning the electrification of bus depots to park these buses. The government aims to electrify 56 bus depots at the cost of ₹1,500 crore. In pursuance of this plan, three bus depots have already been electrified and 17 others will be electrified by June 2025. By December 2023, this number will go up to 36.
Apart from electric buses, the government will also buy 380 other vehicles from the DMRC to ply on the Delhi Metro feeder routes. The government is planning to operate a total of 480 feeder buses in Delhi by the end of this year.