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Delhi government will soon take over the existing Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) electric bus fleet to strengthen last mile connectivity after the Cabinet recently approved the decision.

Delhi government will take over 100 existing e-buses and also operate additional 380 feeder e-buses under its transport department in 2023.

DMRC has been operating feeder e-buses in East and North clusters since December 2019, from the Shastri Park and Majlis Park depots. These buses will be run by the transport department through Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS).

In addition, for the operation of additional 380 electric buses, six stations have been identified - Welcome, Kohat Enclave, Rithala, Nangloi, Mundka and Dwarka.

DMRC will be constructing the bus depots at these locations. The transport department shall operate all these feeder buses on a per km basis which means the operators will be paid by the distance covered by them during the day.

The proposal comes as a part of the recommendation made by the route rationalisation study conducted by the transport department. In October 2022, the first phase of the study was implemented with the standard (1- metre) buses operating across 26 new routes, including Trunk (2), Central Business District (CBD) (3), Primary (18) and Airport routes (3) with a frequency of 5 to 20 minutes during the peak hours.

The study recommended the use of mini buses to operate in the areas where the 12-metre long DTC and Cluster buses can't operate due to the smaller width of the road or the passenger load not being very high.

In these routes and to serve the rural parts of Delhi, operating smaller size buses offers better financial sustainability and convenience to the commuters, connecting their areas to nearby transit hubs.

On the latest development, Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said, "Under the leadership of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi government is committed to make public transport more affordable, safe and convenient for the citizens. With a good response received from the implementation of the pilot of the route rationalization study, these new, smaller size electric feeder buses will further boost last mile connectivity for the people.

"The comprehensive study helped us understand the actual origin and destination of the bus commuters in the city, which led to designing of new routes with a faster frequency of buses in the required areas. We are also ensuring that all new buses being added are electric in a bid to make our public transport completely pollution-free."