The Delhi Government will soon float global tender for procurement of 625 low-floor buses for Delhi Transport Corporation at a cost of Rs.330 crore.
The proposal to procure the buses was cleared by Delhi Cabinet last month.
“We will soon float the global tender. We are planning to get the first batch of the bus in April next year,” Delhi Transport Minister Ramakant Goswami said.
The addition of the new fleet will take the number of low-floor buses of DTC to 4,406 from current 3,781.
The buses are being procured to replace DTC’s old buses which have completed their prescribed mileage of five lakh kilometres. Currently, DTC is running 1,742 old buses.
Officials said each of the low-floor buses would cost around Rs.52 lakh.
They said supplier of the vehicles will have to carry out their maintenance for 7.50 lakh kilometers run or 12 years’ operations, whichever is later.
The government plans to increase the number of buses under DTC to 11,000 including buses under the cluster service within the next couple of years.
Currently, 316 buses are plying under the cluster service being run by private entities.