Delhi govt to procure 1,725 low-floor buses

The Delhi government will soon float global tender for procurement of 1,725 low-floor buses for the Delhi Transport Corporation.
Top officials in the Transport department said the global tender for procuring the buses will be issued shortly as all the specifications for the vehicles have been finalised.
Transport Minister Ramakant Goswami said the first batch of the buses is likely to hit Delhi roads by September.
The new fleet, which will cost around Rs 400 crore, is being procured to further augment the public transport system in the national capital.
The new buses are being procured to replace the DTC's old buses which have completed their prescribed mileage of five lakh kilometres. Currently, the DTC is running 1,742 old buses.

The proposal to buy the buses has already been cleared by the Delhi Cabinet. "We will soon float the global tender to procure the buses," an official said.

The addition of the new fleet will take the number of low-floor DTC buses to 5,506 from current 3,781.
The official said supplier of the vehicles will have to carry out their maintenance for 7.50 lakh kilometres run or 12 years' operations, whichever is later.
The government plans to increase the number of buses under the DTC to 11,000, including buses under the cluster service, within the next couple of years.
Currently, around 340 buses are plying under the cluster service run by private entities.