The Delhi Cabinet on Friday approved the induction of 190 low-floor, air-conditioned, CNG buses into the city's public transport fleet -- a decision that will take the fleet strength to an all-time high of 7,140 buses.
The new buses that will start arriving next year will be fully complaint with BS-VI emission standards and equipped with state-of-the-art facilities such as real-time passenger information system, CCTVs, panic buttons and GPS, according to a transport department statement.
The transport department will incur an estimated Rs 1,259 crore on the viability gap funding for 10 years on the prevailing fare structure with the engagement of 190 buses under Cluster Number 16B CLF, it said.
"The lowest bidder IndClan Mobility Private Limited will provide these buses for 16B CLF under the Gross Cost Model of contracting and will be operating from Ghumanera depot," it said.
The latest addition will take the total number of Cluster scheme buses to 3,383. Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said in a tweet, "Congrats Delhi! Cabinet today, under the leadership of Hon'ble CM @ArvindKejriwal cleared proposal for induction of 190 Low floor AC CNG buses fitted with CCTV, GPS, Panic buttons and differently abled friendly (sic)."
The tender for Cluster Number 16 CLF having 350 buses was floated twice but only a single bid was received on both occasions and hence, the tenders were cancelled.
The Delhi Cabinet on August 29 this year decided to split the tender having Cluster-ID 16A CLF and 16B CLF with 160 and 190 buses respectively, it said. In response to the tender floated by Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System Ltd. (DIMTS) on March 5, 2021, a total of eight bids were received by the transport department through the e-procurement portal of the Delhi government and the Financial Evaluation Committee found IndClan Mobility Private Ltd. as the lowest bidder, it said.
The Delhi government currently operates a total of 3,033 buses under the Cluster scheme. "Earlier this year, Delhi Cabinet had also approved the proposal for the award of contract to 160 buses and with the addition of these 190 buses, the total number of cluster buses will reach 3,383 and the total bus fleet in Delhi will reach an all-time high of 7,140," it said.
A total of 300 electric buses will get inducted into the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) fleet start of next year and a total of approximately 3,500 new electric buses are also getting added to the DTC and Cluster fleet according to an induction plan of the transport department, it said.
