Delhi Cabinet okays procurement of 1,000 CNG low floor buses
NEW DELHI: Ahead of the state Assembly polls, Delhi Cabinet on Thursday approved the procurement of 1000 CNG low floor buses by the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC). DTC will call separate tenders for comprehensive Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC) of these buses. The Cabinet meeting was chaired by the chief minister arvind Kejriwal. "The proposal for the procurement of 1,000 CNG low floor buses by DTC was also approved by the cabinet today. These 1,000 buses will come on Delhi roads between January and May 2020," said, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia .
The schedule was announced by the deputy CM Sisodia and Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot after the cabinet meeting. "Under strict instructions from the Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, following is the schedule for bringing 4,000 new buses on Delhi roads to take the number of total fleet to around 9,500," said deputy Chief Minister. "Right now Delhi has around 5,554 buses plying on the roads (DTC & Cluster). The 1,000 Standard floor cluster buses will start coming from July itself and the full delivery would be completed by December this year," Sisodia said. Delhi is facing an acute shortage of public transport as only 5,554 buses against the required number of 11,000 vehicles are plying in Delhi.
As per the directions of the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court, the total requirement of bus fleet in the city is 11,000 but presently only 5,554 CNG-run buses are running in Delhi. "Since last 9 years, no single bus added in the DTC fleet, but now the procurement of buses will start in this month," Deputy CM assured. "Tender for 1,000 electric buses has been done and will be opened on August 02. All the 1000 electric buses would be on Delhi roads by April 2020 staring from January 2020," Sisodia said.
"Of the 1,000 low floor cluster buses which are to be added to the public transport fleet of Delhi, the cabinet on Thursday approved the proposal to award concession to the successful bidders for 650 buses. Work will be awarded in 15-days. The tender for the rest of the 350 buses will be opened on July 19, 2019. These 1,000 low floor cluster buses will start coming from December 2019 in batch of 165 every month and will be completed by April 2020," Sisodia said.
"The Cabinet decisions taken today are a major boost for the public transport. With the decisions taken today and those taken earlier and in pipeline, Delhi will have 9,500 buses plying on the roads by May 2020; an addition of 4,000 buses in the current fleet of Delhi's public transport. The first batch of the buses will start coming in July 2019 and it will continue till May 2020," he said.
