Sluggish supply of electric buses, DTC to buy 758 CNG buses as stopgap measure

Over 750 new CNG buses in the Capital will, by the end of the year, replace 560 over-aged ones that will have to be phased out by September 2023, said Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) officials aware of the matter. The buses will act as a “stop-gap”, officials said, till 1,500 electric buses enter Delhi’s public transit fleet.

The decision is a policy shift for the Delhi government, which in October last year decided that it will only induct electric buses into its fleet and that an order of 800 CNG buses placed in two partsto replace old cluster buses would be the last lot of fuel-powered ones to hit the city’s streets. However, officials said electric buses, which rely on significantly more modern production techniques, take longer to build and supply than conventional CNG-powered ones that can be added to a fleet within six months of an order being placed.