The new buses, which were flagged off by Transport Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely, will operate on route no 410 connecting Jal Vihar in South Delhi with Khyala in West Delhi.
The minister said 200 more semi low-floor buses would be added in the cluster service by the end of the month and by end of the year the fleet size will be increased to 1,000 from current 245.
"We hope more and more people will shift to public transport as we are providing a safe, reliable and punctual bus service," Lovely said.
The buses, part of cluster three, were flagged off at a function at the Sunheri Nallah Depot near Lodhi road. The depot will function as a multi-disciplinary facility for regular maintenance and technical inspection of the buses round-the-clock.
In 2009, the Delhi government had divided nearly 650 bus routes across the city into 17 clusters each comprising profitable and non-profitable routes and decided to give each cluster to a private operator. Four corporate entities were already given contract to operate the services in five clusters.
The cluster bus service was envisaged to replace the "killer" blueline fleet, which has almost been phased out from the capital. The Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) currently operates around 6,500 buses, including 4,000 low-floor buses.
