India News | Delhi Govt to Extend the Operating Life of 2,600 DTC Buses

New Delhi, Sept 7 (PTI) In view of the ageing fleet of DTC buses, Delhi government has decided to extend operating life of over 2,600 buses to 15 years, officials said.

The Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) has already issued a tender for comprehensive annual maintenance contract of these buses, including 1,840 non-AC and over 800 AC low-floor buses, said a senior government officer.

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The selected contractor will be responsible for comprehensive annual maintenance of these buses with up to 15 years of age from the date of registration, he said.

There are over 2,600 such buses that were purchased between 2008 and 2010.

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Nearly half of these buses have already completed 7.5 lakh km, which is their maximum operational life.

The DTC has a fleet of over 3,700 low-floor buses.

Meanwhile, the process to procure 300 electric buses by the DTC has been slightly delayed due to the COVID-19 induced lockdown and other factors, official sources said.

"The rollout of first batch of e-buses was scheduled to begin from October but it will happen now in November. The entire fleet of 300 buses will arrive by February 2022," they said.

The Transport department is working to set up parking space for these buses at Mundela Kala, Rajghat and Rohini depots that is also "behind the schedule" by three months due to various reasons, according to sources. The engagement of electric buses in the DTC fleet is based on the OPEX (operating expense) model. It has been operating buses owned by it so far.

The bus operators JBM and Tata Motors will operate 200 and 100 buses respectively, officials said.

Under the scheme, the buses will operate a minimum 140 km in a single charge. The operator will provide the driver and the DTC will depute its own conductor in the buses.

The operator will be responsible for maintaining the buses or battery throughout the concession period of 10 years. The cost of electricity consumption for charging batteries will be borne by the DTC, they added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)