New Delhi, Jan 17 (IANS) After months of waiting, 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.
According to the Delhi government, 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.
"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.
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In India more than 23,000 people have, or have had, the new coronavirus, central health ministry data showed on Friday. More than 700 of those infected have died -- a dreadful total, but a relatively low number compared to fatalities in other countries facing outbreaks. India is currently under an extended lockdown til May 3rd that was imposed last month to contain the spread of the virus, which is mainly transmitted through respiratory droplets.
Two people have been arrested for attacking prominent journalist Arnab Goswami and his wife. A FIR has been registered at the NM Joshi Marg Police station. Goswami in his complaint to the police has alleged that he and his wife were attacked by Youth Congress workers when they were driving back home from the Republic TV Headquarters in Worli.
A "major digital transformation" is coming to a one of fastest developing countries in the world. Facebook is committed to "opening commerce opportunities for people across India", founder Mark Zuckerberg said this morning, a day after the social media powerhouse invested $5.7 billion in Reliance Industries Ltd-owned mobile telecom company Reliance Jio.
The men accused of killing three men in Palghar have been arrested and are in jail. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said on he has spoken to Union home minister Amit Shah and assured him that he would look into the case. More than 100 people are in custody. The attack took place at a spot close to Mumbai.
Covid-19 death toll has reached 507 deaths in India while confirmed cases surpassed 15,000. On Sunday 44 new cases of the novel coronavirus were reported in Rajasthan, while in Agra 45 more cases were confirmed. In Lucknow, 43 more people tested positive for the virus.
