New Delhi: Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Ajay Maken on Tuesday alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi is planning to procure electric buses at an inflated price and is going to spend more money on these buses than any other city in the country.Maken said the proposal to procure 1,000 electric buses puts the cost of each bus at Rs 2.5 crore, whereas the Congress government in Karnataka had bought electric buses for Rs 1.7 crore each in Bengaluru.
Transport minister Kailash Gahlot told TOI that the Delhi government is not buying the buses in the first place so the question of spending doesn’t arise. The buses would be bought by concessionaires, as these will be operated under the cluster model. The concessionaire would be paid per kilometre by the government for which there would be bidding. “We are not buying these buses, so where does the price come in the picture?” Gahlot said.