Delhi’s first electric bus has gone on trial. It was flagged off by the Delhi transport minister Gopal Rai, and is expected to make 10 round trips connecting Delhi Secretariat to Central Secretariat every day. Claimed to operate solely on electricty, the bus is said to have been built by BYD, which has entered into a JV with an Indian company to locally produce electric buses. Sources in the Delhi Dialogue Commission claim that not a single penny for the bus has been paid by the Delhi Government. The bus is known to take four hours for a full charge and is capable of covering 280 km on a single charge. The outcome of the pilot run would determine the viability of having an electric bus in the fleet. The FAME program by the central government may have announced an outlay amounting to 50 per cent of the bus cost, the fact is, an electric bus may be far more costlier than a diesel bus. Higher costs would lead to costlier operating costs and subsequently higher fares.

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