In a bid to control air pollution, Delhi rolled out its first DTC electric bus today. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal flagged off Delhi Transport Corporation’s (DTC’s) first electric bus from the Indraprashtha's depot.

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"The first electric bus has started running on the roads of Delhi from today. 300 electric buses will soon be added to DTC's fleet. You must also contribute in this war against pollution by switching your vehicle to electric," Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted.

"Delhi's First ELECTRIC BUS is here! BatteryBus. This is a new dawn in Delhi's Transport System. A significant step towards a pollution-free Delhi. It has ZERO emissions, can be charged in 1.5 hr & runs min. 120 km. Overall we'll have 2,000 such buses; 300 by April," Kejriwal said.

Delhi will get its first of the 300 proposed electric buses with women and differently-abled-friendly features on Monday.

"Happy to share that Hon`ble CM @ArvindKejriwal will flag off the 1st Electric Bus on Delhi roads today at 12 Noon from DTC IP Depot," Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot tweeted this morning.

As the name suggests, these buses will be environment friendly as they would emit zero per cent smoke and run fully on electricity. These 12-meter-low floor AC e-buses will have CCTV cameras, panic buttons enabled to ensure women safety as well as pink seats. Besides having GPS and live-tracking, these buses will have kneeling ramps for the differently-abled population, as per the Delhi government.

"The first prototype of the electric bus has already reached Delhi and will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday (January 17). Fifty e-buses will be inducted into DTC`s fleet by the second week of February and the target to admit 300 e-buses is likely to be achieved till April," Gahlot had said Friday while inaugurating 100 new AC CNG buses in the presence of the Chief Minister at Rajghat.

Besides being differently-abled friendly, the newly inducted low-floor CNG AC buses, launched on January 14, are fully compliant with BS-VI emission standards and are equipped with state-of-the-art facilities like a real-time passenger information system, CCTVs, panic buttons and GPS, among others.

The induction of these 100 buses took Delhi Transport Corporation`s (DTC) fleet to an all-time high of 6,900. Prior to this, Delhi saw 6,000 buses in the fleet of Delhi Transport Department during the Commonwealth Games, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said Friday. In the month of November, the Delhi cabinet had approved the induction of 190 low-floor AC CNG buses -- 100 of which have already been launched, under its cluster scheme.

The Cabinet had further said that 300 electric buses will also be inducted into the DTC fleet by the start of 2022 -- a target which is likely to get completed in April.

With Inputs from IANS