Will procure only e-buses in future if pilot phase is a success: Delhi CM Kejriwal

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said the government would buy only electric buses in the future, if the imminent introduction of 1,000 e-buses turns out to be a success.

The government has planned to introduce 3,000 buses in 2019, of which 1,000 would e-buses and the rest CNG-based. “Once these 1,000 e-buses arrive, and if they turn out to be technologically and financially viable, in the future, we will buy only e-buses,” the CM said while addressing a stakeholders’ consultation on the proposed draft of electric vehicle policy.

But, officials in the state transport department and the Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System Ltd (DIMTS) are taking it one step at a time.

Even as DIMTS, the nodal agency for the e-bus project, is yet to submit its final report, officials said the performance of e-buses is unlikely to match that of the existing CNG fleet.

“The current buses run about 200km a day, but an e-bus will only be able to cover about 100km on a single charge. This, however, does mean that e-buses should not be rolled out. The trick to optimise the new fleet is to introduce e-buses of different sizes after a thorough route rationalisation study,” an official, on condition of anonymity, said.

Also, increasing the power of the bus in terms of adding extra kilometres would mean installing bigger batteries which are not only more expensive, but also take up additional passenger space.

“Maintenance is going to be another issue as it will be a first for the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and bus manufacturers who currently deal only in CNG buses,” another official said.

To augment the charging infrastructure, the government is planning to have multilevel depots with charging points. The idea comes from a similar infrastructure in Beijing, Shenzhen and Hong Kong in China, where a delegation from the transport department, including minister Kailash Gahlot, and DIMTS had gone on a five-day tour last week.

The focus of the tour was to study the infrastructure for buses. Beijing has a fleet of 30,000 buses— a mixture of electric and diesel vehicles— while Shenzhen has only electrical buses. We visited the facilities and found the multilevel depots interesting and are thinking of replicating these in Delhi,” Gahlot said.

“We are also thinking of installing charging points on locations such as the DTC depots,” he said while adding that the proposal of 1,000 electric buses is in the final stages. The first batch of buses are likely to be rolled out in July next year.