Delhi will receive its first fleet of 300 e-buses in January 2022 since the tender for it has matured, said Ravinder Singh Minhas, Deputy Chief General Manager (Traffic and Public Relations), Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC). “These e-buses will be controlled by private entities and operated by the DTC,” he told IANS.

In August 2020, Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot had said the national capital will receive as many as 2,000 electric buses by the end of 2021. However, a few months ago lack of infrastructure was cited as the reason behind the delay in the rollout of the first batch of this most commonly used mode of public transportation.

Both the Delhi and Central governments are actively batting for greener and sustainable vehicles to prepare better for the future challenges of environmental problems due to climate change.

“At present there are 3,700 low-floor buses (red and green) and nearly 4,000 cluster buses (orange and blue ones) running on Delhi roads while the city requires 15,000 more buses,” the DTC official said, adding that, in 2010 a tender was passed for the procurement of 11,000 premium (air-conditioned) buses which hasn’t been processed till date.