NEW DELHI: Electric buses have silently gone from being a novelty to the backbone of city transport in two years, now logging nearly 88% of the total daily distance covered by CNG buses.When electric buses first hit Delhi’s roads in 2022, the 300-strong fleet served just 5% of DTC’s 25 lakh daily passengers. By 2024–25, electric buses were carrying nearly 10 lakh passengers daily, nearly 40% of DTC’s average ridership of 25.6 lakh.The surge signals a shifttowards zero tailpipe-emission bus mobility. In these two years, while electric buses increased from 300 to 1,725, accounting for over 45% of the corporation’s fleet, CNG buses declined by 34% (from 3,637 to 2,094).Proportionately, the daily ridership on CNG buses dropped from nearly 24 lakh in 2022–23 to 15 lakh in 2024–25, as electric buses expanded and replaced them, Delhi government data show.Delhi first introduced CNG buses in 2001 after a Supreme Court order mandated a shift from diesel-run buses to control air pollution. The city also has the most robust metro train network in the country.All DTC electric buses are air-conditioned and lowfloor, and outnumber CNG AC buses (909). They cover 2.9 lakh km a day on average, against 3.3 lakh km covered by all CNG buses.ADTC official said the share of electric bus share will significantly rise by March-end.Delhi’s electric bus journey began on Jan 17, 2022 when one blue bus rolled out on the Pragati Maidan–IP Depot route of 27km. It was astonishingly quiet and quicker compared with the roaring lumbering CNG buses, and of course cleaner. Within months, more buses were introduced. The code is clear: blue for electric, red for air-conditioned CNG, green for non-AC.Govt scaled up electric buses in the city due to their zero tailpipe emissions, lowfloor accessible design, and lower operating costs.A Delhi govt official said central govt schemes such asFAME II, which provides subsidies for the EV transition, played a key role in speeding up the expansion.In these two years, the overall DTC bus ridership has also seen an uptick of 50,000 a day.Amit Bhatt, the India managing director at the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), said the trend reflects sustained policy support and better service quality. “National schemes such as FAME II and the current PM E-DRIVE initiative enabled large-scale deployment of electric buses. Given current trends, Delhi is well positioned to fully transition its bus fleet to electric and expand services further in the coming years,” he said.
