Sprinting forward in the green transportation lane, Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot flagged off 350 new electric buses for the national capital on Wednesday.
With the fresh addition of the new 350 e-buses, Delhi’s zero emission fleet of buses has now risen to 1,650.
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Speaking to reporters after the flag-off, the LG said these buses will contribute immensely in combating the pollution.
According to Chief Minister Kejriwal, now Delhi is at the third spot among cities in terms of the largest zero emission buses in the world, and the national capital has now become the first to have such numbers of electric buses across the nation.
This is a very bold step towards fighting pollution, taken by the Delhi government, said the Transport minister while addressing a press conference after the buses were dedicated to the nation.
Speaking further with regard to the zero-emission buses, Gahlot said so far since the electric buses started rolling on Delhi’s roads they have covered a total of 5.8 crore kms, and have reduced 47,000 tonnes of CO2 emission.
Gahlot said 300 buses out of these will operate under Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System(DIMTS) and 50 will be with the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC).
Earlier, all the electric buses were inducted in the DTC.
The electric buses are already functional on the important routes which witness the most number of passengers.
”Our target is to electrify all the depots across Delhi, and have 8,000 electric buses, which will be 80 per cent of the entire fleet of buses in Delhi.
” In the next 15 to 20 days, we will also add mohalla buses, smaller buses to the fleet, ” the minister added.
He also informed that 22 per cent of the total fleet of buses in Delhi were now electric.
Electric buses were an important aspect of the electric mobility in the city as buses travel most of the distance, much more compared to the private vehicles, he opined.