Delhi govt gives nods for procurement of 1,650 low floor buses

The Delhi Cabinet Thursday gave its nod for procurement of 1,650 low-floor buses by DTC and DIMTS, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said.

He said the Delhi government is moving ahead with the procurement of 4,000 buses that will arrive by mid-2020.

The tender for 1,000 electric buses will open in August and they will start arriving from January, he said adding the entire batch will be on the city roads by April next year.

Delhi Cabinet has approved the procurement of 1,000 air conditioned low-floor buses by Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), he told reporters.

The meeting chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also approved awarding concession to the successful bidders for 650 low-floor buses under the Cluster scheme run by Delhi Integrated Multi Modal Transit System (DIMTS), he said.

"Delhi government has been preparing for procurement of new buses for last the two years. No new buses could be procured by the DTC in the last 9-10 years.

"Besides, 1,000 low-floor DTC buses, process is on for procurement of another 3,000 buses which will arrive by May-June 2020," Sisodia said.

The 1,000 air conditioned low-floor buses to be procured by DTC will start rolling out from January 2020 and the entire fleet will be on the roads of the city by May that year, he said.

Besides, 1,000 standard floor buses under Cluster scheme will start arriving from this month and by December, the entire fleet will be rolled out, he said.

The process for procurement of 1,000 low-floor buses under Cluster scheme is also on. The fleet of 650 buses whose tender was cleared by the Cabinet, will start rolling out from December and the entire fleet will arrive by April 2020, Sisodia said.

Tender for remaining 350 buses low floor buses under Cluster scheme will be opened this month.

Currently, there are around 5,500 public transport buses in the city including 3.900 run by the DTC and over 1,600 under Cluster scheme of DIMTS.