Proposal should ensure these buses hit city roads in a year, Transport Dept told

The Delhi government has directed the Transport Department to move swiftly towards creation of a fleet of electric buses to augment public transportation in the Capital.

Substantial price tag

Sources claimed the Department has been directed to prepare within a month a plan revolving around ensuring that 1,000 such buses, priced between an estimated ₹2 crore to ₹2.5 crore each, hit the streets of Delhi a year from now.

Sources privy to developments in this regard said the Department has been tasked with submitting the consultant report on phased procurement of vehicles constituting the proposed fleet as well as their roll-out by April 30. A consultant for the project is yet to be appointed.

“We plan to roll out 1,000 fully-electric buses in the coming year — the highest fleet of electric buses in any city or State in India. In fact, the highest fleet of electric buses in any city across the world outside of China,” Finance Minister Manish Sisodia had announced in his budget speech last week in relation to the project, which Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had asked the Transport Department to work upon in November last year.

Before Mr. Sisodia’s announcement, sources said, the initial plan was to roll out 100 such buses with gradual addition of 50 more electric vehicles in phases based equally and simultaneously on their operational cost and popularity among commuters. The size of the proposed fleet was subsequently increased to 500, followed by a reduction to 200. It has now been kept at 1,000.

Given the substantial price tag on such vehicles — low-floor electric buses priced at ₹2.6 crore each and midi models which costs around ₹1.6 crore each — a limited number of vendors, mostly from China, have so far approached the Department with sale proposals, said sources.

Larger vehicles among the available models, given the sheer size of batteries powering them, have been found to reduce permissible passenger weight for road worthiness due to the weight of the batteries.

Apart from the fact that a consultant for the project is yet to be appointed, the other challenge in relation to the fleet includes availability of charging points for these vehicles. Just two depots, one each at East Vinod Nagar and Bawana, which will be equipped with 11 kV sub-stations to provide charging facilities for these buses, have been proposed so far.