Arvind Kejriwal took a ride from Indraprasth Depot to Rajghat Depot in the bus
The induction of 150 electric buses equipped with state-of-art features, including CCTV cameras, panic button and GPS, into the DTC's fleet on Tuesday has come after almost 11 years when the public transporter procured buses in such a large number.
Earlier in the day, the electric buses were flagged off by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal from the Indraprastha Depot here.
DTC officials said it is after almost 11 years that the Delhi Transport Corporation has procured buses in such a large number. Mr Kejriwal had flagged off a prototype of an electric bus in January this year. The induction of these buses ends the corporation's "long wait", officials said.
On an average, these buses can run between 140-180 kilometres after being charged fully for two-and-a-half to three hours, they said. The biggest feature of these buses is that they are "pollution free", a government statement said.
"There is no pollution due to the running of these buses. In a 10-year lifespan, e-buses will save 0.16 million tonnes of PM-2.5 and 0.17 million tonnes of PM-10 CO2 compared to CNG buses.
"Along with zero emission, these buses are zero noise. In addition, they are equipped with GPS devices, ramps for the differently-abled, panic buttons, CCTV cameras and other security-related facilities," it said.
Mr Kejriwal also took a ride from Indraprastha Depot to Rajghat Cluster Bus Depot in the bus.
"These buses are highly impressive, beautifully built, and extremely comfortable to travel in. Despite the fact that the bus that I sat in today was swarmed with people, the AC was still very effective. I recall my days during the Andolan, when I would travel in buses quite often that had ACs which would barely work," he said.
The Tata electric bus gets fully charged in two-and-a-half to three hours and can run for 180 kilometres while JBM one can run for 140 kilometres after being charged fully, officials said.
"Every bus does two trips -- one in the day and the other in the evening. During the day trip, the buses will travel for approximately 100-110 kilometres, and come to the bus depot to get charged.
"They will be semi-charged within an hour or so, sufficient enough for the evening trip. In the night, when they return to the depot, they will complete their charging overnight," an official said.
In the current batch, 99 buses are of JBM Auto while the remaining are of Tata.
The DTC has achieved a major milestone by adding 150 electric buses to its fleet, said the government statement.
With this addition, the total number of buses in Delhi has gone up to 7,205. These include 3,912 DTC buses and 3,293 cluster ones, it said.
At the same time, the Delhi Government has built three electric depots in Rohini Sector 37, Mundelakalan and Rajghat-2 to accommodate electric buses.
Thirty-two charging stations have been built in Mundela Kalan depot at a cost of Rs 24 crore. There are 48 charging stations in Rohini Sector-37 depot built with an investment of Rs 120 crore, it added.
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