Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal flagged off 500 electric buses on Thursday. With this, the total number of electric buses in New Delhi has reached to 1300.
On the occasion, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said, “I am happy that 500 buses have been inducted. I want to congratulate the people of Delhi for this. I want to thank LG Vinai Kumar Saxena for gracing the occasion. Now we have 1,300 electric buses in Delhi. We are the number one city in the nation as far the number of electric buses is concerned.”
Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena also said that the electric buses will help curb pollution in the national capital.
“These 500 buses we have inducted today will help curb pollution. We need to improve the pollution situation in Delhi and efforts are being made in this direction. More steps will be taken ahead,” LG Saxena said.
In this regard, Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gehlot said that this step will significantly help in controlling the levels of carbon dioxide in the city.
“With the flagging off of 500 new electric buses today, the number of electric buses in the city will rise to 1300. This is the highest number of electric buses in any city in the country. It will help in reducing pollution in the city. One electric bus runs 200 km per day and on an annual basis 70,000 km. According to reports, one CNG bus emits 800 grams of CO2 in the environment. Thousands and lakhs of tonnes of CO2 will be curbed,” Gehlot said.
Earlier, the Supreme Court on Wednesday stressed the need to stop crop residue burning, which affects air quality in the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) and asked state governments to take steps to curb pollution.
“Let us at least make an endeavour for the next winter to be a little better,” a bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia said. Crop burning “must stop,” Justice Kaul said while underscoring the need for judicial monitoring to ensure people do not face the same scenario every winter.
The overall air quality in the national capital continued to hover in the ‘very poor’ category on Thursday, according to the data released by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). (ANI)
