After the long delay of eight-months, 280 mini electric mohalla buses are finally ready to be deployed in Delhi, media reported citing transport department officials.
How Did This Happen?
The delay is caused by the ‘missing’ indigenous compliance certificates.
The BJP government has decided to launch the mohalla bus service which was earlier proposed by the erstwhile AAP government, earlier.
When to comes to the the mohalla bus plan, it is aimed to improve last-mile connectivity for residents.
It will be very useful for the people staying in densely populated areas having narrow roads, where DTC and cluster buses could not enter or the frequency of service was low.
Moving ahead, the manufacturers were required to provide an indigenous compliance certificate which will ensure that domestic or Make in India products were used while manufacturing these buses as explained by a senior department official.
The official said, “the companies that provided these buses did not submit this, due to which the government did not give permission for operating these buses.”
Further adding, “now, some of the companies have submitted certificates for some buses. They have also submitted an affidavit promising to submit the certificates for the remaining buses within six months.”
Trial Runs For Mohalla Buses
While that being said the trial runs of mohalla buses started in East Delhi on routes like Pradhan Enclave to Majlis Park metro station, and Akshardham metro station to Mayur Vihar Phase III paper market.
The AAP government rolled out two mohalla buses on trial in South Delhi last August which was enrouted from Kailash Colony Metro station to PNB Geetanjali and from Lok Kalyan Marg Metro station to Vasant Vihar.
This all started when the Transport Department had invited bids for 1,900 12-m-long e-buses and 1,040 9-m-long mini e-buses to enhance last-mile transport options.
Most of the buses out of 1900 ordered have already joined the fleet, but 400 are yet to join the fleet of regular e-buses.
For the mini variants, 280 have arrived so far and will soon run as mohalla buses.
