Delhi government to electrify all 62 bus depots

The Aam Aadmi Party government has begun the process of electrifying all 62 bus depots in the city, while Delhi now boasts of three electric bus depots to house more than 300 e-buses being inducted into Delhi Transport Corporation’s (DTC) fleet.

The Delhi government constructed two bus depots to accommodate e-buses at Mundhela Kalan and Rohini Sector-37, besides upgrading the Rajghat depot. It is also operating on equipping 14 more depots that will be required for parking and charging more e-buses.

Currently, DTC has 152 e-buses, and 150 more are likely to be launched soon. This is apart from 330 e-buses that are going to be inducted into the Cluster Scheme fleet and the 1,500 e-buses that will be inducted into the Grand Challenge Scheme of Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL).

Principal secretary-cum-transport commissioner, Ashish Kundra, said 12 bus depots were being electrified for the 1,500 e-buses that would arrive soon, apart from designing two depots in Burari and Rohini to accommodate the e-buses under the Cluster Scheme. There will be 17 depots for electric buses, including the three bus depots.

Kundra said now they are going to design a comprehensive plan for electrification of all bus depots in phases, and as many as 62 depots will be electrified.

Kundra said that a 4 kV (kv) load would be adequate for charging 100 buses depending on the site. If an 11 kV charging capacity is available, depots can be electrified in four-six months, while a depot with a 33 kV charging capacity takes 9-12 months, and for a facility with a charging capacity of 66 kV, an additional grid has to be formed.

Kundra said additional facilities had to be formed at the Rohini Sector-37 depot, and it took a year and a half to be finished.

Earlier, the DTC Board provided approval for the 921 bus procurement under the Grand Challenge Scheme of CESL, which comes under the FAME-II category. Under the non-FAME-II category, the remaining 579 buses. The Delhi government will deliver a subsidy of Rs 262 crore for these 579 buses.

The government is looking at a shift to a fully electric public transport and electric vehicle (EV) ecosystem. An assessment of depots has been taking place, and a project monitoring unit has been set up to supervise the execution, as part of the plan.

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