The Delhi government in Wednesday gave "in principle" approval for procurement of 1,000 electric buses that will hit the city roads from June-July next year, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said. The approval to Transport department's proposal for e buses was given in a meeting of Delhi cabinet chaired by the Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

"Cabinet approves hiring of consultant to run 1000 electric buses in Delhi. A big step in modernising Delhi's transport sector and reducing pollution," Kejriwal tweeted.

The government has directed Delhi Integrated Multi Modal Transit System(DIMTS) to submit its report on the proposal within three months, Sisodia said in a press conference.

"The e-buses will roll out by around June-July next year," he said.

Terming the Cabinet decision as a very big step to address the issues of public transport and pollution, Sisodia said that no other country in the world except China has such a large number of e buses.

The Transport department had sought cabinet approval to engage 1,000 pure, low floor airconditioned electric buses, in the Gross Cost Model of contracting under the Cluster scheme, so that further process of hiring project consultant for the technical detailing and bid process management can be carried out, said a government statement.

DIMTS will be the project consultant, it said.

Transport department will construct bus depots at six locations - East Vinod Nagar, Bawana Sector 5, Burari, Rohini Sector 37, Revla Khanpur and Narela- for parking the e buses.

Earlier this month, Supreme Court had questioned the Delhi government's proposal to procure the e buses over the time required to set up charging stations for the fleet.

Electric power for charging of electric buses and the housing of requisite numbers of charging units will be the responsibility of the concessionaire(s), who will arrange the infrastructure at their own cost, in consultation with discoms, said the statement

The court had also directed the government to explore the possibility of using hydrogen fuel cell powered buses that are considered more cost-effective than e buses.

"Transport department has also been directed to explore the possibility of Hydrogen (fuel cell) buses as suggested by the Supreme Court," Sisodia said.

The Delhi government's move to have e buses followed a "successful" trial of an electric bus in 2016. State transporter DTC had conducted the trial from March 10, 2016 to July 2, 2016, during which the bus clocked 16,915 kilometres and suffered only one break down due to a tyre puncture.

In India, only 30 e buses are being run -- 25 by Himchal Pradesh Road Transport Corporation and five by BEST in Mumbai.

Ten cities in the country have recently invited tenders for 440 e buses, added the statement.

First Published:Jul 11, 2018 8:10 PM IST