On Wednesday, Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot flagged off a total of 80 air-conditioned CNG buses under cluster services from Rajghat bus depot, taking the fleet of public transport in the national capital to 7,080. According to the officials from the Transport Department, the DTC fleet will get 62 electric buses over the next two weeks. The city, at present, has only two e-buses. According to an IE report, these dark blue cluster buses have been provided with state-of-the-art features including CCTVs, pink seats for women commuters, separate seats for senior citizens, a foldable ramp for people with disabilities, as well as panic buttons with hooters to help women passengers sound the alarm and live video streaming in case of any emergency.
While speaking after the inauguration of the AC CNG buses, the Transport Minister said, as many as 80 low-floor AC buses were added to the fleet of public buses. The department is continuously strengthening the city’s bus network, Gahlot stated. He further said that they will fulfill all promises made to the public. Recently, they have crossed the 7,000 buses milestone. The number has reached an all-time high of 7,081 with the induction of another 80 buses, he said. These air-conditioned CNG buses are equipped with various state-of-the-art facilities including safety features for women passengers. The Transport department is keen to provide a world-class public transport system to Delhiites, he added.
The air-conditioned CNG buses have GPS installed for live tracking with two-way communication with the control room, automatic transmission with rear engine, heating ventilation and air conditioning system, disc brakes, as well as fire detection and suppression system. These buses are entirely Bharat Stage VI emission standard compliant, by which the carbon monoxide emission will be reduced by 30 per cent and nitrogen oxide emission by 80 per cent, according to officials. The cluster buses, currently, are operated on as many as 328 city routes network. The newly-inducted AC buses will be deployed on nine more cluster routes from Ghumanhera depot 1 and 2, the officials added.