NEW DELHI: The success of the odd-even experiment seems to have convinced chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to deploy funds for augmenting the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) fleet.Transport minister Gopal Rai said on Saturday that a cabinet note will be moved early next week for procuring 1,000 DTC buses. “These buses should be available on the road from August ,” he added. However, relief will come early with the cluster system adding 1,000 by April-May.The decision to make funds available for DTC comes after the “excellent” work done by it during the odd-even scheme, said sources. Interestingly, till now, the Delhi government has been concentrating on acquiring buses through a private-public partnership model, much like the cluster system that is being managed by DIMTS (Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System).In April last year, Kejriwal had made a push for PPP models in public transport, arguing that it wasn’t the “government’s job to run buses”. Now, though, the government is keen to do so and the cabinet note is expected to be cleared by Republic Day.Besides these 1,000 buses, the government is also planning to get 1,000 buses from the cluster—orange buses—scheme this year. “Work on the depots has started, and we expect the buses to start coming from April-May,” said Rai.The government will also have another 1,000 buses as part of a premium bus service that will be available from November, said the minister.“The premium bus service can be booked through an app and will consist of airconditioned buses with Wi-Fi, CCTV and marshals. These buses will have a higher fare,” said Rai, adding a cabinet note on the proposal was expected to be cleared by next month. “Five depot spaces have been identified. These buses should be on the road by November,” he said.Asked how the government plans to acquire these buses, Rai said the tender for the cluster buses has already gone through. “These buses are available, and we are only making space for them in the new depots,” said Rai, adding the buses for DTC will be acquired through a global tender.“DIMTS, on behalf of the transport department, had come out with an international expression of interest, which had a deadline of January 15. More than 20 companies have shown interest,” said Rai. These include companies like Volvo and Scania, said the minister, adding that the buses catered to the entire range —CNG, electric and biogas.“An international tender will be floated for the 1,000 buses, along with buses for services like feeder buses etc,”he said.