Delhi: CM Arvind Kejriwal flags off 100 low-floor BS-VI compliant AC CNG buses

The public transport bus fleet size at 6,900 has become the largest so far in Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Friday after flagging off 100 low floor and air-conditioned buses at Rajghat depot here.

The city transport department is also making efforts to have 300 e-buses on the road by April, Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said on the occasion.

"With induction of these 100 buses now, the public transport bus fleet size has grown to 6,900 which is the highest so far. Earlier, there were around 6,000 buses at the time of Commonwealth Games (in 2010)," Kejriwal said.

The government is procuring many more buses including e-buses, he said.

"It takes 2-3 years for new buses to come due to tender process and other formalities, it cannot happen overnight. When our government was formed, there was much shortage of buses as no new buses were purchased for many years. The buses started rolling out after we activated the procurement process," he said.

The 100 new buses will be operated mostly on rural routes from Ghumanhera bus depot, he said, adding "We are committed to boost public transport ensuring people have buses for commute on regular frequency."

Meanwhile, the transport minister tweeted, "Congrats! Today we've added 100 more fully BS VI compliant AC CNG buses to our fleet. Under Hon'ble CM @ArvindKejriwal ji's dynamic leadership, Delhi in 2022 will see more and more state of the art buses, including 100% electric ones being added to it's fleet!."

A prototype e-bus will be flagged of by the chief minister on Monday. Fifty more e-buses will arrive by first or second week of February and all the efforts will be made to have 300 e-buses by April, Gahlot said.