With an objective to cut down emission, the Delhi Cabinet on Saturday approved 1,000 low-floor AC electric buses for the national Capital. With this, Delhi would become the first city in the country to have this number of e-buses. According to Delhi Government official, the first set of tenders is expected to be released within a week.
"The Government is committed to providing an efficient and environment friendly mode of public transport for the residents of Delhi," "Creating sufficient capacity in public transport system is the only way to reduce air pollution in Delhi and bring down the number of vehicles on the roads of Delhi to reduce congestion," a Government official said.
As per the minutes of Cabinet meeting chaired by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the Cabinet also gave its approval to allow the Transport department to ask the prospective bidders to bring the buses with CCTV, Automatic Vehicle Tracking System (AVTS), Panic buttons and Panic alarms, as per the specification finalised by the Transport Department.
Under this project, the Cabinet also approved a proposal to authorise the Transport Minister for approval of all Request for Qualification and Proposals (RFQPs) under this project.
In action plan, Government also decided parking space and charging station for the safely and timely ply of the buses. "These 1,000 low floor electric buses will be parked and charged overnight at 6 depots called as Parent Depots. Providing the charging infrastructure up to the LT bus bar level in Parent Depots shall be the responsibility of the Government," the Government official said.
Interestingly, the infrastructure for charging of electric buses within the depot and the housing of requisite numbers of charging units shall be the responsibility of the Concessionaire.
Elaborating about the project, Government spokesperson said that the project of engagement of 1,000 standard size (12m) low floor AC pure electric buses is under Gross cost contracting model.
"Decision on floating of individual RFQPs for each cluster shall be taken by the minister and depending upon the readiness of depots and the power infrastructure therein, as to which of the clusters are ready for tendering," said Delhi Government official.
Pertinently, a subsidy of up to `75 lakh per bus or 60 percent of cost of bus, whichever is lesser, shall be provided in three instalments and as per the modalities in FAME-I scheme along with the safeguards as prescribed by Delhi Government
The Cabinet in its meeting has also decided that subsidy and power infrastructure up to Parent Depots ,estimated to Rs 800 Crore and will be funded through the utilization of Environment Compensation Charges (ECC) funds.