Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday flagged off 97 electric buses from the Rajghat bus depot that took the number of such vehicles to 250. The CM said that nearly 80 per cent of the city's entire bus fleet will be completely electric by 2025.
The CM also announced that 8,000 e-buses are in the pipeline to arrive by 2025 and by November 2023, Delhi will have the highest number of e-buses in India with 1,800 e-buses.
Kejriwal said that the city government is phasing out old-polluting buses and replacing them with electric buses. “We have developed world-class education and healthcare models in Delhi and now it is time to transform Delhi’s transport sector into a model for the world to reckon with,” said Kejriwal. “Many countries have very modern transport systems. We will take a page out of their book and develop the most effective and efficient transport model in Delhi,” said Kejriwal.
He further said that 153 e-buses are already plying on roads of Delhi, and with new fleet of 97 e buses the numbers have now reached to 250. Further, 50 more e buses are to be added by September. By November 2023, 1500 more electric buses will be acquired to take number of e-buses to 1800,” said Kejriwal.
“Delhi will soon boast of highest number of electric buses in any Indian city. By end of 2025, the number of buses in Delhi will increase to 10,380 of which about 80 percent (8180) will be electric buses. At present, 7,373 buses are running in Delhi including DTC and Cluster buses, this is highest number of buses in fleet of Transport Department in history of Delhi,” said Kejriwal.
“Charging stations have been established in three depots, by 2023, 55 depots will be electrified and by 2025, 18 thousand charging points will be ready in Delhi. 11 women have been inducted as bus drivers in Delhi, in the coming times, 200 more women will be trained and inducted for the role,” Kejriwal added.
Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said it was a historic moment and the flagging off of electric buses was a befitting reply to those who were saying that DTC would shut down.