New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday flagged off first batch of 25 new buses of the 1,000 standard floor ones to be procured in a phased manner by the Delhi government. The buses are equipped with unique features, which include hydraulic lifts for differently-baled commuters, besides CCTV cameras, GPS, and panic buttons. Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said, "Today is a day of happiness for Delhiites, since it marks the beginning of arrival of 3,000 new buses for Delhi. There were a lot of difficulties, but I am happy that all those hurdles have been overcome and finally the delivery of buses has started and the first lot has today hit the roads." Transport Minister, Kailash Gahlot said it is a day of personal satisfaction for him, since he has fulfilled the commitment he had given to the Chief Minister about two years back. "Who had ever thought that there would be petitions filed against increasing the bus fleet for improving public transport of Delhi? We had to fight till the Supreme Court, but we are happy that finally the buses are here," Gahlot said. In September, the second batch of 125 standard floor buses under cluster scheme will be rolled out, Kejriwal said. The entire fleet of 1,000 standard floor buses will be delivered by January next year. It may be mentioned that the new fleet comprises panic buttons that are more secured, technology empowered buttons, never attempted by any government in India in the past and for the first time in the country. So far the buttons installed currently in the DTCs own fleet and cluster buses are mere stop request buttons which came in-built with the buses from the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) when they were handed over to DTC 2008 onwards. These buttons are only meant to alert the bus conductor in case a passenger desires to alight the bus at the next bus stop. "Starting with these new buses and henceforth, every bus will have these panic buttons at various points in the passenger cabin. Once a passenger will press the panic button, the CCTV footage of the bus will be directly relayed to a centralized command centre and a police hotline will get instantly activated. At the same time, the GPS location of the bus will automatically reach the back end," Delhi government said in a statement. "With todays launch, the Delhi Government has been able to successfully achieve the vision to provide greater safety for passengers travelling on DTC and cluster buses," it added. The panic buttons come with an integrated set up of CCTVs and GPS in every bus. For the 1000 new buses that the Delhi Government is procuring, the system will come in-built from the OEMs. Once fully installed in all the buses, Delhi would become the first city in the country to offer a round-the-clock technology-enabled security cover in public buses.

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