Delhi now boast 1,300 electric buses built by Tata
The city’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, wanted to have 1,900 electric buses on the roads of Delhi by the end of this year and 8,000 electric buses by the end of 2025. He announced these plans in September when introducing 400 Tata e-buses for the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC).
Tata Motors has also made the new buses and relies on a deal DTC struck with Tata at the beginning of this year. The Indian corporation is to supply 1,500 electric buses for use in India’s capital. The vehicles are of the Tata Starbus EV type, a 12-metre electric bus. The contract runs over twelve years, including maintenance. Government sources speak of 225 kilometres of range and enhanced safety features like panic buttons and CCTV.
The buses replace mostly CNG buses, of which DTC runs about 7,300 but says these are prone to breakdowns.
“In the summer, we had increasingly faced the problem of breakdowns and defects as most of the buses have crossed ten years,” a senior transport department official told local media.
The public transport operator will phase out the fleet and aims to replace these with electric buses.
“Having signed contracts for nearly 6,000 electric buses, Delhi is poised to be #2 globally by the end of 2024,” Ashish Kundra, Principal Secretary of Delhi’s transport department, stated on social media.
It has yet to be disclosed who has signed these contracts.
While the capital city appears to be making strides, a nationwide tender reportedly turned into a flop. Issued for 4,675 electric buses in January 2023, the industry did not bid. Established OEMs such as Tata Motors or Ashok Leyland refrained from offers since the chosen business model would have put the money and control in the hands of state transport companies across India.
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