Letter of Award issued, DTC fleet to swell to over 5,300 by October end

New Delhi: The Transport Department of the Delhi government has issued the Letter of Award for the procurement of 1,300 more buses in the Capital, which is expected to take the total tally of buses in the city to over 5,300 by the end of October this year, senior government officials have said.

"The procurement of the buses have started and the full delivery is expected to be completed by October this (2021) year," one senior official aware of the development told Millennium Post. The Letter of Award has been given for 1,000 Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses and for 300 electric buses, another official confirmed.

"The buses will start arriving from June onwards in batches and the full delivery should be completed by October end," the senior official said.

The DTC Board had earlier approved the tender to procure 1,250 BS-VI compliant air conditioner CNG-propelled low floor buses after almost a wait of ten years. The aim is to have 700 new electric buses in total by 2021 travelling the roads of the city, the official said.

"In May, the slot of buses will start delivering in batches of 160 buses every 45 days. The entire batch of 1,250 buses will be delivered by October 2021," the senior official said.

In addition to being BS-VI compliant and air conditioned, all the buses will have panic buttons with speakers for women's safety and will also be disabled-friendly with fitted lifts. As of now, the DTC fleet comprises 3,762 low-floor CNG buses and with the addition of 1,250 new buses along with the 300 electric ones, the fleet will increase to 5,312 buses. Similarly, there are currently 2,839 Cluster buses here and with 575 electric buses being added, this will increase to 3,414. Out of the 575 electric Cluster buses, 190 will be delivered at the Burari depot, 110 at the Mundela Kalan depot and 275 will be delivered at the Rohini depot.