The Delhi Government in their budget for the financial year 2020-21 allotted a whole of Rs 59.47 billion for enhancing the public transport infrastructure sector in the national capital. Rs 9 billion allotted for the Delhi Metro Phase-IV project.
With the plan to fulfil Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s promise of providing “the largest and cheapest public transport system” in the national capital, Dy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia stated that the Delhi govt had fixed a target of taking the complete fleet of State-run buses to 11,000 and laying 500 km of Delhi Metro lines of Phase-IV.
Sisodia also declared after a gap of around ten years new buses have been combined in Delhi’s public transport system buses with modern CCTV and ‘disabled-friendly lift’ have been included in the fleet for the first time in the country. New low-floor buses have been inducted for the first time since the Commonwealth Games. Entirely 2,485 new buses, 1,300 DTC and 1,185 cluster buses, including 685 electric buses would be added to the fleet during 2020-21.
Further, he stated that as much as 1,880 buses in which 444 DTC and 1,436 cluster buses would be acquired at the beginning of 2021-22. He told that the Delhi govt would resume providing free travel to women on buses.
He added, “I propose an outlay of Rs 2.5 billion for the purchase of buses by DTC and Rs 11 billion for gap funding of cluster buses four depots that are Okhla, Harinagar, Vasant Vihar and Hasanpur. These would probably be the first multilevel depots of its kind in the country.”
He said that work on additional corridors of Delhi Metro Phase-III and NCR stretch of 158 km length had already been approved and the rest work of around 2 km on the Najafgarh corridor would be finished throughout this financial year.