Delhi government will soon introduce the Mohalla Bus Program

The ambitious “mohalla” bus program of the Delhi government is anticipated to be implemented over the next few months, and the DTC is anticipated to sign a deal for the purchase of electric buses this week, an official said on Wednesday.

The mohalla bus service, which was included in the Delhi budget for 2023–24, proposes to employ shorter, nine-metre electric buses to provide last-mile connection in regions with narrower roads or congested traffic.

“For the purchase of buses, we are expected to execute a deal with the e-bus makers this week or early next week. Bus deliveries are expected to take three to five months, according to the spokesman.

In an interview with PTI last week, Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said that improving last-mile connectivity is one of the government’s main priorities.

“We have established a committee and undertaken several discussions. To get firsthand knowledge, I will also meet privately with council members and MLAs. Additionally, we want to have public gatherings around the country. We’ll finalize the service’s itineraries after these talks, he added.

Gahlot had said that these buses would go around a mohalla in a circle so that residents could get to the markets, hospitals, and metro stations nearby.

To operate on routes that 12-metre buses can’t reach, the Arvind Kejriwal administration intends to purchase more than 2,000 feeder buses. The transport minister appointed a technical group in May to choose the new bus system’s routes and operating features.

Based on comments from the public, the committee has finished the route survey.

The official said, “Now the survey data is being tallied with the demographic statistics of those, road infrastructure, and road width.

The mohalla buses will be made especially for regions where the width of the road is narrower or where it is too congested for standard 12-meter buses to operate.