DTC to add more wheels to its fleet

1,400 more buses could ply by end of this year; govt. pins hopes on Centre’s ‘Grand Challenge’ scheme

Over 1,400 buses are expected to be added to the Capital’s public transport fleet by the end of this year. Buses, in batches of hundreds, are expected to be inducted every three to six months which will eventually take the city’s bus fleet size to its highest in a decade.

Having successfully tided over an apparent jinx in the procurement of buses, which persisted for over a decade, the Delhi government has pinned its hopes on the Centre’s ‘Grand Challenge’ scheme to fulfil its electric bus wishlist.

Delhi has made an ambitious pitch for 1,500 electric buses under the scheme in which around 3,500 buses will be procured by the Government of India for allotment to State transport undertakings of nine mega cities. It hopes to get at least 1,000 of the 1,500 it has requested, sources said.