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.
In a major decision to regularise the services of nearly 36,000 employees ahead of the Assembly elections, the Punjab Cabinet on Tuesday approved the Punjab Protection and Regularisation of Contractual Employees Bill, 2021 to be introduced in the forthcoming Vidhan Sabha session for enactment.
The Punjab Cabinet on Tuesday accepted the resignation of Advocate General A.P.S. Deol -- a decision that is seen in political circles as lessening the "friction" between Chief Minister Charanjit Channi and Congress state chief Navjot Sidhu.
To curb air pollution emitting from open fires in the national capital, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Tuesday announced to launch an anti-open burning campaign under which 550 teams from various departments will be deployed in the city to keep a check on burning in open spaces.
A two-time councilor from Jhilmil ward and an MLA from Shahdara, Shunty has been running the foundation since 25 years which provides free ambulance services for the poor.
Randhawa in a statement here said the former Chief Minister, who also held the Home Portfolio, had then ordered the reinstatement of the police officer while withholding just one increment despite the then Additional Chief Secretary, Home, not writing in favour of the officer.
Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Channi had said that his government will not accept the Centre's decision to expand the BSF's jurisdiction from existing 15 km from the border to 50 km, as this is "against the spirit of federalism".
